<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Dancing Rogues by Avrina</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24539197">Dancing Rogues</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Avrina/pseuds/Avrina'>Avrina</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Tales from the Eastern Kingdoms [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>No Fandom, Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alcohol, Best Friends, Brothers, Character Death, Developing Friendships, F/F, F/M, Friends With Benefits, Friendship, M/M, Magic, Minor Character Death, Murder, Nobility, Princes &amp; Princesses, Sex, Sorceresses, Thieves Guild, Trust, Witches, Wizards, magical sex, rogues - Freeform</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 10:49:15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>21,786</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24539197</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Avrina/pseuds/Avrina</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Nobles bring you money or trouble.</p><p>Ari is supposed to get her friends out of such trouble, but the problem turns out to be bigger- and more powerful- than expected...</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Original Character(s)/Original Character(s), Original Female Character/Original Female Character, Original Female Character/Original Male Character, Original Male Character/Original Male Character</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Tales from the Eastern Kingdoms [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1630612</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. The Beginning was a Beer</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Timeline info: takes place the summer before "The Beginning of the Fall"</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The sun had set, the evening mass had been read - the few people on the streets were on their way home or to the nearest pub. <br/>A man pulled a small handcart with so little effort that the many boxes on it were probably empty. <br/>Two women carried a basket between them, which was covered with a colourful cloth. <br/>A city guard and a squire came down the street and disappeared with their storm lantern behind the next bend.</p>
<p>Ari pushed herself away from the wall of the house where she had leaned in the deeper shadows and stepped onto the street. Without the noise of the day, it was even possible to move around the main market without suffering hearing damage. She liked this time of day, the evening - the day died and a new night was born.</p>
<p>Immersed in a murmuring conversation, two men approached her, but they didn't give her a second glance, if ever a first one. She was wearing a shirt and trousers under the long cape with the heavy hood, and in the shadows which enveloped most of the city by now, she was not immediately recognizable as a woman. In contrast to the prostitute who stood in the entrance of a side street, posing with a lantern stinking of cheap oil, lighting skilfully her curves but not her face.</p>
<p>Ari turned left at the next intersection and lifted her gaze when she heard hoofbeats. Seconds later she saw the horse and retreated into the shadows. In the faint light which fell from a window onto the street, she recognized the royal twins Alexander and Ariel- his metallic vambrace shimmered and her white wizard's cap glowed. He brought her back to the Hall of Shadows and Ari watched them until the dark swallowed horse and riders. Actually, it was unnecessary, because she saw them often, but sometimes she got a whiff of regret that she couldn't be a lady who was just bold enough to ride with a prince.<br/>With an amused snort she shook her head and went on her way. Hannah would now say she should rather ride the prince and not the horse, but she didn't give in to such fantasies in the first place. The princes Samson and Alexander were damn good-looking guys, sure, but good-looking guys she had as roommates too, and in the worst case she could pay for one.</p>
<p>The pub she finally entered was not very inviting from the outside; the signature sign with the bitten apple had a big crack and the green paint was mostly peeled off, the windows were dirty smeared. The smell of stale beer, old sweat, and cheap wine struck her, but those who came here didn't do it for drinks or a meal. You could get both, but the <em>guests</em> who sat here were rogues- rogues waiting for a job.</p>
<p>"... I don't give a fuck!", said a man at the counter, which was located on the right wall, clearly too loud for the subdued atmosphere. To underline his words, he slapped the counter with his flat hand. <br/>Ari frowned. Seven rogues sat divided over three tables and watched the conversation between the potential client and the innkeeper Peter, which didn't seem like it had just begun. The man was neatly dressed and looked like a craftsman, but his appearance did not suit a simple low-income earner.<br/>"I want someone with experience," he hissed at Peter, who growled. <br/>"Then turn around, man. Your walking experience just showed up." <br/>This must have been Ari, and she nodded at Peter before strolling over to the counter and leaning against it under the man's prying eyes. <br/>"You look fucking young," grumbled the man, not really impressed. She shrugged. <br/>"We start early. What do you need?" She examined him, too, but couldn't see anything suspicious - either because he didn't have anything suspicious, or because he'd been clever enough to leave those characteristics at home.<br/>"Murder? Theft?" she suggested with a raised eyebrow, and when he still didn't answer, she turned to Peter. "Any mail?" <br/>"Depends. Where are you going?" he asked back. <br/>"Frog." <br/>"Then the usual." He turned away and entered a small back room through an empty archway.<br/>"So. What do you want?" Ari asked the potential client again, this time without the playful undertone in her voice. <br/>"A warning," he finally said. <br/>"A warning. I see. To who? Why? When? Where? How? Conditions?" She tapped the counter with a fingernail and he hesitated again.<br/>"Listen, dude, I don't have all night. So say what you got to say. And unless you want to send a warning to your guild master, I'm probably overqualified anyway." She underlined her words with a quick nod and then gave Peter a smile when he came back with a couple of messages in his hand. <br/>"Here's the mail for the frog." <br/>"It's about the blacksmith Frederick," the man finally blurted out and Ari sighed. <br/>"Honestly, you should spend your money on other things." She leaned over a bit and nodded at one of the rogues. "Hey, Wyatt, blacksmith Frederick- does that ring a bell?" <br/>The young man she spoke to rose with a feigned salute. "Yeah... there was something last week. I'll take care of it." <br/>"Very good." She picked up Peter's messages and shoved them in her belt bag, while addressing the customer, saying: "Wyatt has enough experience, don't worry. And if something does go wrong, you'll even have money left afterwards to pay for a second try." <br/>"Hey, I'm no bumbler. And I'm not that cheap either," Wyatt complained and leaned against the counter at the other side of the man. <br/>"Sweetheart, you're not cheap, no matter how much cheap booze you dump into you." She winked at him. "I'm just moving in a different pay grade."</p>
<p>~</p>
<p><em>The Red Frog</em> was a significant improvement on <em>The Bitten Apple</em> and had acquired a certain reputation over time. Guards and knights were only welcome here if they left their duties outside and the innkeeper Thomas and his wife Manny were not squeamish when it came to throwing someone out.</p>
<p>A musician played a fiddle and the mood was good when Ari stepped to the counter and pushed the heavy hood backwards. Manny smiled a warm smile at her. <br/>"I assume you got the mail?" <br/>Ari smiled back and pulled out the few messages "You're right as always." <br/>"What can I get you?" the innkeeper asked after shoving the messages in her apron. <br/>"Beer and stew. Unless you have fresh bread and this orange cheese..." <br/>Manny shook her head apologetically and Ari shrugged. <br/>"Hannah sits in the back," Manny then said and Ari was about to answer when the door flew open and slammed into the wall. <br/>"Oops." Even without armor, the three young men were recognizable as knights- and one of them was prince Christian the bastard. <br/>"I'll <em>oops</em> you, too, in a second," growled a man - a blacksmith, if Ari remembered correctly - at a table close to the door. <br/>"Take it easy, my friend has more strength than brains," said the second young knight and Christian pushed the two further into the pub so that he could close the door behind him. <br/>"Trouble..." Manny sighed barely audible and pushed the beer to Ari. She just nodded, took her beer and turned around. If she had made a step, she would have run straight into the prince, but this way she looked up at him and he grinned. <br/>"Is that beer direct to me, honey?" <br/>"Only if you want to wash your hair with it," she returned coolly; his faint smell of apples and sweat was almost pleasant. His two friends laughed and he stepped aside, implying a mocking bow. <br/>"I think it's still too early for a shared bath." <br/>"With you, I wouldn't even get into the tub if you princes really bathed in milk and honey." <br/>His green eyes flashed in amusement. "For you, I would even arrange it." <br/>She gave him a condescending smile, a shake of the head and left him to sit at one of the back tables with her best friend Hannah. Drawing attention to herself like that meant she had to be even more discreet the next while. A rogue who was known like a colorful dog soon became an imprisoned rogue.</p>
<p>"You flirting with that bastard?" Hannah lolled in her chair and gave Ari a half hearted smile. Ari took off her cape and sat down, turning the chair a little to have better view of the barroom. <br/>"The bastard flirts with anything that has boobs," she returned late. <br/>"Even if they're man boobs?" <br/>She snorted. "I doubt it." <br/>"Come on, you don't know what goes on in the barracks." Meaningly Hannah wiggled her eyebrows and Ari shook her head. <br/>"Do you seriously think the knights would betray the Great Mother's teachings like that?" Finally she took a sip of beer. <br/>"They're men, sweetie." Hannah grinned - the woman with the short dark curls had sex on her mind all the time and thought everyone else felt the same. <br/>"So? Not all men think with their dicks." Ari glanced at her friend with a look that said the subject was now over, and in support came Manny with the stew. <br/>"Hannah, dear, you should eat something too, you're getting thinner," chubby Manny remarked in a maternal tone and Hannah sighed. <br/>"Yes, Manny." <br/>"Men don't like pointy bones." <br/>"I know, Manny." <br/>Ari smiled at her stew because Hannah didn't like men. <br/>"You want me to bring you some stew?" <br/>Hannah sighed again and fished some coins out of her pocket in reply. "And two more beers." <br/>Manny nodded and left, taking more orders or calling out greetings.</p>
<p>A kitchen boy brought Hannah's stew first, then the beer. The two women ate and drank in silence and Ari kept an eye on what was happening. Christian and his two companions sat with a few other men at a bigger table relatively in the middle and about the time Hannah was finished with her stew, too, two men left the table and the three knights were invited to the dice game.</p>
<p>"You watch the bastard as if you would rather sit on his lap than here at the table," Hannah remarked sulking a little later. Ari suppressed a sigh because she had no nerve for Hannah's jealousy right now. They were friends, lived together and sometimes shared the bed, but unlike Hannah, Ari was very much attracted to men. <br/>"Even if so, what difference would it make?" she asked. At that moment the bastard made a surprised exclamation. <br/>"No! Come on, it can't be!" <br/>The others laughed. <br/>"It would be very mean of you," Hannah said, deepening her pout. <br/>The bastard now laughed as well and shouted: "A round on me!" <br/>"Mean? Why mean?" Ari raised an eyebrow and looked at Hannah. <br/>"The guys are into you and he flirted with you. You could even have him if you wanted." <br/>"I don't understand your problem," Ari admitted and Hannah sighed. <br/>"You could go to bed with a <em>prince</em>, Ari, and me?" <br/>"If you wanted it so badly and desperately, you could have him as well." Ari shrugged and Hannah rolled her eyes, but into her answer came an angry scream and when Ari looked up, beer splashed across the dice table. <br/>"That was my beer!" someone shouted outraged. <br/>"My shirt is ruined," yelled another. <br/>"Hey! Don't touch my winnings," a third yelled in between. <br/>"Oh no, buddy, you're not getting away from me that easily!", a fourth interfered loudly in the sudden chaos of jumping up men and Christian shouted angrily: <br/>"Hands off my dagger!"</p>
<p>It was one of Christian's friends who grabbed the alleged thief by the collar and Ari sighed. <br/>"We haven't had anything in the frog for a long time, don't you think?" Hannah noticed slightly amused when the first chair tipped over. <br/>Thomas shouted that everyone should calm down but that didn't help at all because in no time the brawl spread to the other tables. One of the knights cried out when he slipped in a puddle of beer and went down unfortunately; Ari almost imagined to hear it crack. <br/>"Frederick!" she heard with absolute certainty Manny calling out. The man, who had growled at the knights earlier, jumped into the turmoil and Ari frowned as she thought of the apple and Wyatt's employer.</p>
<p>"You know what I really like about being a woman?" Hannah asked and Ari shook her head. <br/>"Tell me." <br/>Hannah found a new answer to this question every time. "I don't have to get involved in this fight." One of the reasons Ari had voted against Hannah joining the guild council was because Hannah didn't take certain things seriously enough - like the order to keep prince Christian out of bigger trouble. Still, she made a consenting sound and watched as Frederick the blacksmith dragged one of the knights to the door, both by the collar and the belt. The door opened as if by magic and Frederick threw the knight outside. As the man hit the street, Wyatt appeared in the doorway, looked at Frederick with a frown and hurriedly moved aside as Christian and his second companion hurried outside, half willing, half pushed.</p>
<p>"Now we can- wait, where are you going?" Hannah protested as Ari got up and threw over her cape. <br/>"Send the guys home." <br/>"This is not your job," Hannah protested further, probably just wanting to spend the time till the council meeting later that night doing nothing. <br/>"Yes, it is." Ari returned seriously, nodded to her anew pouting friend and pushed her way through the hardly diminished chaos, generously stepping over several puddles.</p>
<p>Outside one of the knights scolded like a fishwife while the other one carefully touched his nose. With pain in his eyes, the bastard moved his jaw and at the same time wiped a wet blonde strand from his forehead. <br/>"You did wash your hair with beer after all," Ari lightly noticed and he snorted. <br/>"Not by choice." <br/>"It's good for the glow." She winked at him and turned to walk, pretending to leave, but then stopped. "Maybe you should keep your feet still for a while." <br/>"We didn't start!" complained the one knight. <br/>"I couldn't care less." She shrugged. "But if from tomorrow on knights aren't welcome in the Frog anymore, you will still be remembered." <br/>"That's-" the second knight began, but was interrupted by a gesture from Christian. <br/>"All right, all right." he said appeasingly, and ran his fingers through his hair again. <br/>"You'd better go home now and wash up," she suggested and smiled at the three of them. "Good night, little prince." <br/>His answer was a rumble, but by then she already disappeared with long strides into the shadows of the night.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Concerns alone won't solve problems</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Restlessness filled Ari as she roamed the streets. Cullen had convened the Guild Council, although Tom and Arnold were not yet back from their last job- and they should have been, if Ari didn't completely miscalculate, already for a few days. They had set off to the east, but that's all she knew and that made her even more worried because usually Tom would tell her where he was going.</p><p>She climbed onto a box, pulled herself up a window ledge and swung herself onto the roof of the house. A cool breeze grazed her face and she looked down when she heard heavy boot steps.<br/>"...among the knights there are various rumours," said a city guard. "Philip says the war is either almost over or on the upswing."<br/>The second guard replied with a snort: "It will soon be over. Haven't you seen how many knights have come back in the last few days?"<br/>"Doesn't mean anything," replied the first guard, then they stomped around a corner. Ari raised an eyebrow - rumours about the war were always interesting and if she was honest, she hadn't even thought about why prince Christian had returned from the front so suddenly.</p><p>An alley cat mewed complaining and somewhere nearby people were arguing while Ari straightened up halfway and ran and jumped crouched over the roofs until she had a good view of the cathedral. The eternal fire lit up the huge dial of the tower clock and made it clear that she still had more than enough time. After a short hesitation, however, she gave in to her restlessness and made her way to the <em>Black Dagger</em>.</p><p>~</p><p>Three guys and a woman squatted on a pile of crates next to the entrance of the brightly lit bar and played dice in the glow of a window. They looked bored and inattentive, but those who did not belong here were immediately given a friendly reminder to leave. Ari, however, got a slight nod and the woman murmured to her in a rough voice:<br/>"Cullen and Don are not in yet."<br/>"Okay," Ari muttered back and entered the <em>Black Dagger</em>.</p><p>Immediately the party noise of a colorful group hit her. According to the colourful embroideries on the hems and the dresses of the women they were tailors, but in another corner a group of men with white shirts- bakers- were sitting and celebrating as well. This lifted Ari's mood a little, and with a fine smile she ordered from John, who was tapping beer behind the bar, one of those from the very same.</p><p>She had just taken the first sip when the door opened and three men came in with a fresh buzz. All three were carrying large baskets of different kinds of bread, and one of them shouted:<br/>"The <em>Black Dagger</em> celebrates with us today!" One of his companions placed his basket right on the counter, the other took the basket to the tailors. From the following celebration Ari understood that there had been an important wedding between the Bakers Guild and the Tailors Guild and when a first couple started to dance, she felt a sting. She had been born into the Tailors Guild...</p><p>"And you sit here moping?" A heavy hand landed on her shoulder and she looked up. Don stood before her, a smile on his face and a wink around his eyes. Both faded when she didn't react, and he gently squeezed her shoulder before pulling the hand back.<br/>"Think not of your mother. You'll start drinking and we need you sober."<br/>She sighed, but demonstratively emptied her beer before she nodded and tried to smile. Don was the oldest rogue she knew, and was no longer active if one disregarded his seat on the Guild Council. He had been her father's mentor many years ago and had brought her into the Guild; if she was to name a family, he would probably have been the first person she would choose to call.</p><p>"Where did you lose Cullen?" she asked, slipping from the bar stool.<br/>"Comin' up. As soon as all the knights of the capital come back, there's trouble all over," Don replied with a sigh.<br/>"As if the knights were the troublemakers..." Ari smiled at him.<br/>"From our point of view, they certainly are. After all, <em>we</em> work with silence and shadow."<br/>She laughed softly at his serious words and got a wry look.<br/>"I had someone tell me the bastard got kicked out of the frog?"<br/>"More or less, yes. A game of dice escalated." She shrugged. "I told him to lay low for a while, otherwise it was his last visit to the frog. I think he understood."<br/>"Good." Don nodded and Ari turned her head when she saw a familiar figure enter. It was Hannah, followed by Vincent and Theo.<br/>"Let's go back," Don said instead of a greeting and while Vincent nodded in agreement, Theo shrugged half-heartedly. Ari received a slightly angry look from Hannah but she ignored it.</p><p>At the back part of the <em>Black Dagger</em> there was an inconspicuous door Don opened and disappeared behind. Ari followed the others and since she was the last one, she closed the door behind her. The narrow corridor was unlit as usual, but from the council chamber light was already shining.<br/>"But you take your time...", Ansgar sounded bored.<br/>"Cullen's not here yet, so what's the hurry?" Don growled, adding: "Boots off the table." Ari smiled at Ansgar's eye roll but obediently he put his feet on the floor. She took off the cape, hung it over a chair and leaned against it. The round table had nine seats and was already quite worn; the stains on it were from drinks as well as blood. Above it hung a combination of three lanterns, cleverly fitted with mirrors so that the room was well lit, but for the moment only a three-armed candlestick was lit.</p><p>"It's serious, isn't it?", Theo wanted to know and brushed a black curl behind his ear.<br/>"If Cullen calls a meeting even though the council isn't complete, you can jerk off on it," Ansgar replied casually before Don could say anything.<br/>"I don't like this," Vincent said softly and sat down.<br/>"You don't have to." Hannah gave back dry and dropped herself on a chair next to him.<br/>Ari sighed. "Cullen will have his reasons."<br/>"I always have my reasons," Cullen said promptly and she winced, not having expected him to come in yet.</p><p>"Sit down," the Guild Master said seriously and Ari, Don and Theo followed his request. When Cullen also sat down, he looked at everyone seriously and Ari felt confirmed in her restlessness from before.<br/>"I'll get right to the point," he started and put his fingertips together, a gesture of uneasiness or concern. "We have no idea where four of our guild members are at the moment."<br/>"Who are we talking about?" Ansgar asked, still relaxed.<br/>"Murdock, Hadley, Arnold and Tom," Cullen replied quietly.<br/>Ari sucked in the air in surprise, Vincent made a frightened sound, Don and the others frowned.<br/>"Murdoch and Hadley were on their way to the Hall of Water, weren't they?" Don asked and was almost drowned out by Vincent:<br/>"Where was Tom heading?" Vincent was in general a cautious man and quickly worried, but when it came to his big brother, nothing else mattered.<br/>"East," Hannah said slowly and Ari got a stomachache. Next to Hannah, Tom was her best friend and she found the thought that something might have happened to him anything but comforting.</p><p>Cullen licked his lips. "Tom and Arnold were in the City by the Lake by order of Lord Bloodspear. I received two messages of little substance, but nothing more. If there were any problems, they should have contacted me or come back."<br/>"Nothing at all?" Theo asked in between.<br/>"No." Cullen shook his head. "Don's right, Murdoch and Hadley were in charge of something for the Hall of Water and should stop at the City by the Lake on the way there."<br/>"No messages?" Ari wanted to know and forced herself to relax her hands, which clenched into fists.<br/>"Only that they had arrived," was the answer and she took a deep breath.<br/>"What's going on in the city?" Ansgar asked and now frowned as well.<br/>"What kind of a job did these two actually have?", Don asked quietly and Ari raised an eyebrow. If the second-in-command didn't know...</p><p>"Are they in danger?" Vincent asked alarmed and Hannah sighed annoyed.<br/>"Vince, please. Let Cullen talk."<br/>"It was an assignment from Lord Bloodspear. Noble affairs," Cullen said evasively and Don shook his head.<br/>"That's not how it works, Cullen. Spit it out."<br/>"That's not how it works, Don," Cullen retorted, and because he got a scowl, he shook his head in addition. "I'm sorry. But I'm sworn to secrecy and I want your advice, that's what you're here for."<br/>Ari looked at him a little irritated. "Advice? What kind of advice? The obvious thing is to find out <em>why</em> they disappeared and <em>where</em> they went."<br/>"I can go there and see." Vincent immediately offered, and was silenced by Hannah, Ansgar and Don:<br/>"No!"<br/>"Ari is right," Theo said objectively and nodded at her. "Four of us have disappeared, so the question is why. Just- how do we find out without endangering other guild members?"<br/>"That's not what I meant," Ari said with a shake of the head. "There are rogues in the City by the Lake too, they must know something."<br/>Cullen sighed. "Tom and Arnold haven't settled down at the Guild house. Last seen was Tom sending a message. But in terms of time, it was not a message to <em>us</em>."<br/>"To the employer, Lord Bloodspear?" Ansgar presumed questioningly.<br/>"Quite possible." Cullen shrugged. "After that, neither of them was seen again. Hadley and Murdoch arrived, settled in the Guild house and didn't return from a scouting trip two days later. That is all I know."<br/>"Anything unusual happening in the town itself?" Theo asked.<br/>"There should always be something going on in a commercial hub like the City by the Lake," Hannah added, but Cullen shook his head.<br/>"Absolutely nothing to connect it with."</p><p>It was quiet for a moment and Ari chewed on her lower lip. Rogues don't just disappear. And no one touched a rogue ranked as a golden knife- identifiable by the golden ring on a necklace- without fearing the wrath of the entire guild. The council members had no special markings, but the rogues at the lake knew who Tom and Arnold were.</p><p>"Do you think the rogues of the town are clean?" she expressed her thoughts. A critical frown ran across Cullen's face, then he nodded.<br/>"I trust Maximilian."<br/>"Obviously not enough to give Lord Bloodspear's task to him," Don remarked gloomily. "What business has a lord from the far northwest this far east anyway?"<br/>Cullen's face was tortured. "Secrecy, Don, secrecy."<br/>Hannah sighed. "Really, Cullen, what do you wanna hear now? If you don't tell us, we can't help you."<br/>He grimaced a little more and sucked on his lower lip. Ari had never seen him so worried and helpless and Don's tense attitude told her that he too- even though he wasn't even informed- had a hard time keeping his anxiety under control.</p><p>"Don and Ari stay here, the rest of you send Henry in, he sits outside," Cullen finally said in this special tone of voice which did not tolerate any back talk. And though no one spoke back, everyone looked at Cullen with doubt. Vincent appeared as if he wanted to say something, but Hannah grabbed him by the arm and pulled him outside; Ansgar closed the door.<br/>Ari leaned back in her chair and looked at Cullen searchingly. "You should never have sent Tom and Arnold out, am I right?" If she was right, they had a magical problem.<br/>Cullen nodded uneasy. "Lord Bloodspear approached Arnold, so I couldn't very well say no when he wanted to do the job. But you-" After a knock, the door opened and Henry stepped in.<br/>"You sent for me?"<br/>"Have a seat."<br/>Henry, a skinny guy with greasy black hair and a crooked nose, sat down carefully.</p><p>"We have a magical problem," Cullen said directly and Ari got her fear confirmed.<br/>"What kind of problem?" Don asked, barely concealing his annoyance that Cullen hadn't told him earlier.<br/>"A witch."<br/>Ari blew a dumbfounded whistle and Henry raised his eyebrows.<br/>"You wanna send a barely-trained sorceress and a near-zero trained wizard against a witch? Are you insane?"<br/>"No," Cullen replied very quietly. "Not insane, but desperate."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Your boss makes the mistakes and you have to pay...</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ari blinked at her guild master and couldn't believe what she heard. <em>Desperation</em> was about the last thing she thought Cullen was capable of. <br/>"What...?" Henry finally began disbelieving and Don cleared his throat. <br/>"Would you be so kind as to explain the whole thing?" <br/>Cullen nodded and took a sighing breath. "Lord Bloodspear's daughter Aphra is being educated by Lord and Lady Greenpebble," he began. "Ella Greenpebble is a witch, and according to Aphra's letters, she has bought a petrified dragon egg." <br/>"That doesn't sound very dangerous now..." Don remarked critically and Ari shook her head. <br/>"A skilled witch could possibly make the egg viable again." <br/>"Sounds like blood magic," Henry said and Ari caught his worried glance. <br/>"It probably is. But then again, the nature of witch magic is inextricably linked to blood magic." Her magical training had been brief but certain things were already taught to the youngest novices. <br/>"But what does a witch want with a baby-dragon? Is it possible to control these beasts at all?" Henry asked further and Cullen shrugged. <br/>"I don't really care what she intends to do with it. But in her city four of our boys have disappeared and Lord Bloodspear had ordered us to bring back his daughter, because King Steven doesn't give a shit about cancelling the educational agreement earlier because of the war. And he wants the egg."</p>
<p>"So... why exactly are you desperate?" Ari cautiously asked. <br/>"Who has disappeared?" Henry asked irritated in between and Cullen sighed again before rubbing his face. <br/>"Lord Bloodspear approached Arnold because he wants his daughter back and wants to get the egg at the same time - for whatever reason. Since Ari was unavailable, Arnold brought Tom with him. The first two messages are from Arnold saying that so far there's nothing unusual, that Tom is extremely nervous and that they have a good plan to get to both." <br/>"Tom is sensitive to magic, so for some reason the witch's magic will be all over town. But what does <em>Bloodspear</em> want with a fossilized egg?" Ari said with a frown. <br/>"Magic-sensitive?" Don frowned as well. <br/>"If there's too much magic around him, it makes him nervous. Most people only feel it like a breeze or something, but for him it becomes uncomfortable, like groping hands," Ari explained and Cullen grimaced in a way that made her suspect something bad. <br/>"You didn't take it seriously, right?" <br/>"No," he admitted after a moment. "Which is why..." He hesitated. "I'm sorry. I lied to you." <br/>"Cullen..." Don said, long and warning. <br/>"Tom's last message <em>was</em> for us. I didn't take it seriously, and since Hadley and Murdoch were leaving I asked them to stop by the city. Except for the message that they had arrived, there was nothing to hear from them," Cullen explained, addressing the tabletop and Ari hissed softly. <br/>"What did Tom write?" <br/>"Why didn't you react sooner?" Don asked angrily and Henry followed suit: <br/>"What exactly is going on?" <br/>"I talked to Maximilian, in his eyes there was absolutely nothing conspicuous happening in the city," Cullen replied and pulled a note from his belt pouch, which he pushed over the table in Ari's direction. She had to get up to reach it, and let herself fall back into her chair as she read the first words.</p>
<p>
  <em>Ari. <br/>The city is quiet, but there is a thunderstorm brewing in the air. A black shadow is roaming the streets and Arnold wants to follow it tonight - I don't think that's a good idea. Tell Cullen we need you. Bring Henry if you can. <br/>Love, Tom.</em>
</p>
<p>Ari didn't know what to say first, but there was suddenly anger in her stomach that wanted to come out. <br/>"You kept a message from me!" <br/>"It was about the job." <br/>"You didn't take him seriously, Cullen!" She got loud and reacted with a snarl when Don took the message from her. <br/>"Tom overreacted in my eyes, Ari. Magic sensitive or not, but-" <br/>"Do you even know the code words of the two to be able to judge the message correctly?" Don calmly asked in between. With an audible click of his teeth, Cullen closed his mouth. <br/>"No," he then admitted and lowered his eyes anew. <br/>"The city is buzzing with magic, a black shadow is on the move and the shit is on fire," Ari said and Don grimaced. <br/>"Somehow I was hoping the shadow was a code." <br/>"No," Ari said cool.</p>
<p>"So what do we do now?" Henry spoke up cautiously. "The others will want to know what happened." <br/>"Of course they will," Don replied sullenly and Cullen shook his head softly. "Yes, Cullen. You're gonna tell 'em." Don leaned over. "You fucked up, plain and simple." <br/>"I'm gonna ride out to the City by the lake with Henry and check it." Ari said serious. <br/>"You're not going alone," Don insisted sharply. "You each take someone you absolutely trust." <br/>Ari made a face, because normally she would have chosen Tom, but Henry seemed unhappy, too. <br/>"Meet me tomorrow at three at the <em>Tired Sparrow</em>." <br/>Cullen didn't comment on Don's orders so Ari got up and left the council chamber.</p>
<p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p>
<p>Henry joined her at the bar after he sent the rest of the council back in; and after he too had a beer in front of him, he said: <br/>"Cullen's really screwed up." <br/>Ari created an anti-eavesdrop shield around them and nodded. She was furious with her guild master. Magic was no joke and she didn't understand why Cullen had allowed Arnold and Tom to steal something under the nose of a witch on their own - and a human on top.</p>
<p>Since she didn't give a verbal answer, Henry asked quietly: <br/>"What exactly are we supposed to do now? Get the boys out of there? Get the girl and the egg out of there? Get rid of a witch?" <br/>"Probably all at once," Ari muttered, sullenly looking at the foam on her beer. "I don't like a witch with a dragon egg. I like even less a city ruled by a witch with a dragon egg where friends of mine disappear." The longer this fact lingered in her subconscious, the more it smelled of evil magic to her.</p>
<p>Henry nodded thoughtfully. "Who are you taking?" <br/>"Hannah. And you?" <br/>"Normally, I would ask Hadley, but... well. Derek, I guess." <br/>"Who's that?" <br/>"A teenager. Good thief, good liar." <br/>Ari nodded slowly. The whole problem was so fucked up...</p>
<p>They didn't talk for a while and Ari thought. She hardly knew Henry, had only rarely anything to do with him, but although he lacked a basic education, he had with the knowledge he had "stolen" and worked for, gained a certain reputation. Whether this was enough when facing a witch, however, she dared to doubt - her own magical knowledge was not exactly book-filling as well after only five years of training as a child.</p>
<p>"Ari... calm down." <br/>She looked up. Henry frowned and she could feel the restlessness of her magic; immediately she took a deep breath and finally he nodded at her. <br/>"Okay. Let's do this thing soberly." <br/>She nodded. <br/>"What do you need?" he asked and she bit her lip. <br/>"One or two rings each. Two amulets. A few stones in the back up." <br/>He nodded. "Okay. I can take care of it. I'll tell Derek to look after our supplies; he lives near the <em>Tired Sparrow</em>." <br/>Now Ari nodded. "Hannah will probably take care of an entire arsenal of weapons without any prompting." She hesitated. "What worries me, though, is Vincent. I hope Don and the others can keep him calm." <br/>"Are you afraid he'll do something stupid?" <br/>"He let a few others get hurt last year just to protect Tom. He's a valuable voice on the council, but when it comes to Tom... I'm afraid if we don't take him with us, he'll follow." She looked at Henry, and he nodded sternly. <br/>"We have no use for someone like that." <br/>"No. In fact, I think even Hannah's too restless for this." <br/>"Then why are you taking her?" <br/>"Because she's good." <br/>Henry laughed softly and shook his head, smiling. "All right. We rescue our boys and get the job done. If that's all it takes..." <br/>Ari smiled weakly back; Henry's optimism did good. Still, she didn't feel much like messing with a witch on her territory, even though she and Henry might be the only ones in the guild who could do something about it.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Magical jewels for her and him</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Undecidedly Ari stared into her clothes chest. She didn't have much, but how much of this little should she take with her? Two pairs of pants, two shirts? Maybe three pairs? She had no idea how dirty this job was gonna get. <br/>Rather three pairs, she finally decided, folded and rolled up the clothes anew and pushed them into one of her two saddlebags. Well, another pair she would wear, and anyway. It wasn't as if they were going into the wild; in the City by the Lake you could buy clothes if necessary.</p>
<p>A much more important problem was the jewels. Henry was going to take care of them and without his help she would not be able to enchant them, but she still pulled her little treasure chest out of its hiding place. Some of the stolen rings had left their previous owner long enough that they could now be used magically, so she picked out two of them. The magical enchantments wore off or didn't last forever, and if one of the four was injured- which they probably should expect- they needed all the help they could get. Having an empty, clean ring up your sleeve wasn't bad at all.</p>
<p>The front door creaked and Ari heard Hannah swearing suppressed. She hurriedly closed her chest and pushed it back into place. She had just straightened up with the rings in her hand and turned around when her room door opened as well. <br/>"Hey, Ari..." <br/>"Normal people knock, Hannah." <br/>Hannah rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah... I took care of the horses and the weapons. Do you think we need a second packhorse?" <br/>"No." Ari shook her head. "It's summer and we don't need tents. My magic is enough protection. Besides, there are only four of us." <br/>Hannah nodded thoughtfully and Ari pulled a small pouch from a drawer into which she let the rings slip. <br/>"Henry takes care of the magic jewels?" Hannah wanted to know when Ari put the pouch into the saddlebag. <br/>"Yes and no. I have to prepare the protective spells for our night camp, but he's making the battle rings." <br/>"Good." <br/>Ari closed the saddlebag and paused as Hannah's hands suddenly brushed across her back. <br/>"Why don't you put the bags down, hmm?" <br/>"Hannah..." Before she could really protest, Hannah's hands were on her boobs and squeezed gently. She got a kiss on the neck and sighed. "Hannah, please. I have other things on my mind." <br/>"That's exactly why I'm here. So you can relax." Hannah purred and kissed Ari's neck. <br/>"Excuse me, but Tom-" <br/>"Chrrrr..." Hannah growled annoyed and let Ari go. "First the bastard and now Tom. Do you have nothing but <em>men</em> on your mind?" <br/>Ari turned and pressed her lips together for a moment. "Maybe I should just leave you here. Since you don't care about Tom and the others anyway, you can go on-" <br/>"A-<em>ri!</em> Stop it! I'm as worried about Tom and Arnold and Hadley and Murdoch as you!" To Ari's surprise, Hannah's lower lip suddenly quivered. <br/>"You have a very strange way of showing it," Ari replied quietly. <br/>Hannah snorted and shook her head. "You're the strong one here, Ari. If it wasn't for you and Arnold and Tom, I would have snuffed it and... and I'm not letting either one of you down. I just wanted to... um..." She let her head down a bit. "I just wanted to feel a little better." <br/>"By seducing me? You know that doesn't work unless I want it to." <br/>"Yeah, but... forget it." Hannah turned around and left. <br/>Ari sighed. There were moments when she just didn't understand her best friend and it was painful to see those moments multiply lately.</p>
<p>The front door creaked again and before Ari had to fear that Hannah would leave, Thoralf shouted: <br/>"Hey, anybody home?" <br/>"Yes!" Ari and Hannah called back almost simultaneously. She heard him go to the back and turned back to her things. <br/>Clothes, armor, knives, daggers, lockpicks... Out of an impulse she pulled out her treasure chest once more and took out a fine bracelet. She would put a weak but long lasting protection spell on it and then give it to Hannah. She had no idea what was going on with her, but Hannah was not good at talking about herself.</p>
<p>~</p>
<p>Punctuality was a virtue, not only for knights. And that's why Ari was a little annoyed while she stood and waited in front of the <em>Tired Sparrow</em>. Henry and Derek were already packing the horses in the backyard, but Don and Hannah hadn't shown up yet.</p>
<p>"... not all women want jewels," someone said and Ari raised her gaze. A town guard and a knight- prince Christian- were on duty, making their rounds. <br/>"But if you give them some, they will be happy in the end," the prince replied with a wink. <br/>The guard shrugged. "I prefer the attention elsewhere." Underlining his words with a gesture his eyes fell on Ari. She smiled and nodded at him, whereupon he blushed. <br/>Christian, who laughed softly, followed his partner's gaze and recognized her. "Hey... who do we have here?" <br/>"Apparently a pitiful prince desperately trying to sell off his family jewels," she greeted dryly.<br/>The guard grunted a suppressed laugh and Christian's smile narrowed. <br/><em>"Pitiful?"</em> <br/>"Well, things you have to advertise are often not of the best quality." She tilted her head a little. "Because quality goods almost sell themselves." <br/>It flashed in his eyes. "So you're trying to accuse me of poor quality, do I get it right? Without having sampled the goods?" Even though his face looked like it, he wasn't really angry; there was amusement in his voice and Ari tried hard not to let her friendly smile turn into a provocative smirk. <br/>"Are you just offering me a free sample for my evaluation?" She raised an eyebrow. <br/>The guard grinned broadly and Christian made a face. <br/>"Free certainly not. Jewels don't come cheap." <br/>"Hmm." she made and couldn't help but notice it sounded a tiny bit like a purr. Don and Hannah finally turned the corner and so she winked at the bastard. "Well, if your jewels are really that valuable, you should put them somewhere safe. Not that somebody might steal them." Under other circumstances, she would have patted him on the shoulder now, but this way, she just pushed off the wall of the house she was leaning against and nodded past him to Hannah. <br/>Christian's gaze changed, becoming critical and a little interested. "Bring it on, little thief." <br/>Ari just smiled at him. <br/>His partner started moving again at the obvious end of the conversation and he followed him with a short hesitation.</p>
<p>Ari's smile disappeared, however, as Don and Hannah came closer. "You're late." <br/>"And you've obviously made good use of the time and flirted with the bastard <em>again</em>," Hannah pointedly returned while Don sighed. <br/>"I had an equally unpleasant and long discussion with Cullen, I'm sorry. But at least he wrote a message to Maximilian." <br/>Ari nodded. "Good. Anything else?" <br/>Don just looked at her and so she turned to enter the <em>Tired Sparrow</em>.</p>
<p>In the backyard Henry and Derek stood next to the five horses and seemed to get impatient. <br/>"Any final instructions?" Henry asked with raised eyebrows and Don nodded thoughtfully. <br/>"Take care of yourself. I've had a disgustingly sleepless night and a few more to go, I guess. I don't like this story." <br/>"Me neither," Henry replied and Derek grimaced. Meanwhile, Hannah tied her saddlebags to the last of the unpacked horses and asked: <br/>"How much time do we have before Cullen sends out another search party?" Her tone was light and almost cheerful as always and Ari frowned, but when Hannah raised her eyes, there was concern in them. <br/>"I don't know. Cullen would probably prefer to keep it all quiet and wait for the problem to solve itself," Don murmured and sounded a little bitter. Before one of the four could give a reply, he patted Henry and Ari, whom he was closest to, briefly on the shoulder and nodded. "Hurry up and be careful."</p>
<p>Ari watched as he disappeared back into the <em>Tired Sparrow</em>, then she looked at Hannah who nodded, at Derek who tried to smile, and at Henry who, nodding, released the reins from the handrail. In a casual tone of voice he said: <br/>"I packed a handful of clean jewels. Maybe we can play with them a little on the way." <br/>After the conversation with Christian, Ari had to giggle and Hannah, who guessed what the giggle was about, giggled as well. "It's okay," Ari said, nodding at the irritated Henry. "Who knows which powers are hidden inside?" <br/>Now Hannah laughed out loud and Ari patted her horse's neck before winking at Henry - a wordless explanation that made him blush. <br/>"That's not what I meant..." <br/>"I know." She led the horse to the gate. "But your wording was just too good." <br/>"Ah. Hmm. Yes. Okay." The wizard was obviously embarrassed. <br/>"You might as well just take time by the forelock," Derek remarked amusedly from the background and Ari made a face, glad the others didn't see it. The way Henry's <em>forelock</em> looked, she didn't want to know about the rest of him. Clean jewels or not.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Lessons and pleasure are not incompatible</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"We should stop or it will get too dark", Hannah said after a checking look at the sky and Ari nodded in agreement. They led the horses off the road and across the meadow to a group of bushes and young trees. Even though Ari wanted to create visual and sound protection, they were still on the most frequented road to the east and especially the more exotic groups of merchants or mercenary units often had someone magically gifted with them, who might be able to sense something while riding by.</p>
<p>Derek and Hannah took care of the horses, Ari set up a simple camp and Henry sorted the jewellery he had brought with him. When they were all done with it, Henry and Ari sat cross-legged opposite each other and he grabbed an amulet which was equipped with an aquamarine. <br/>"This one is pretty big, we could put the visual shield on it." <br/>Ari nodded. "Good." For her own assignments she had enough of her own magic, but she had commissioned enchantments from Henry one time or another - she had never learned how to do it.</p>
<p>"Give me your hand." <br/>She reached out to Henry, he put the amulet inside and his own on top. <br/>"Close your eyes and feel the stone." <br/>She complied and frowned because she could barely grasp the stone. <br/>"Air magic and gems don't like each other, hmm?" Henry asked and Ari imagined hearing a faint amusement. <br/>"Not really," she admitted and he hummed approvingly. And then it felt like he was hugging her. His magic was so palpable to her as if it were his physical hands that embraced her shoulders, slid over her arms to her hands and finally closed her fingers around the stone. Her magic fingers.</p>
<p>"Hold it tight," he whispered. His magic was tart, unpolished and rough, like calloused men's hands from working. "Make your shield, but not just a blanket, but a tent with a floor." <br/>"That's not necessary," she murmured back. "such modifications are-" <br/>"You must tie the shield to the stone, Ari," he interrupted her. "The shield must come out of the stone. You're right, the shield doesn't need a base, but it makes the connection stronger, more stable than if you were just creating a tent pole." <br/>That actually made sense, so she changed her standard shield, made it bigger and more stable, based it on the image of a big tent and tried to extend the reach to the horses, but Henry interrupted her again: <br/>"Don't, that's enough. I have another simpler protection for them." <br/>"Okay..." Slowly it became difficult to hold on to the magic, she was not used to such gimmicks. <br/>"Now you must attach the shield to the stone." <br/>"How?" <br/>"Bind it. With magical threads." <br/>She had no idea what he wanted from her. Seconds later she noticed how he wrapped a fine net around the stone using various elements and combinations of elements, and then sewed the shield to it with a kind of needle.</p>
<p>"One: I can never do that in my life. Two: and it'll hold?" <br/>"One: Probably not, no. Two: I'll check it every night." <br/>She blinked and saw Henry smiling. <br/>"Since this is a nice air shield, it's activated by breathing on it." <br/>"Breathe on it?" Derek asked skeptically, who had obviously watched with fascination. <br/>Hannah breathed a little too hard against his ear and he backed away in surprise, whereupon she giggled. <br/>"That's the way it works." Henry shrugged and Ari sighed. <br/>"What about the sound shield?" <br/>"Works the same way."</p>
<p>Henry took a second amulet, this time with a pale amethyst, and together they attached another shield. <br/>When both shields were created and active, Henry stood up and stretched. <br/>"I will quickly put the protection spell on the horses." <br/>"All right..." Hannah said and handed Derek one of the provisions bags while Ari nodded tiredly. A fine throb spread out behind her forehead and she winced as Derek put something under her nose. <br/>"Here. If you can warm them up for us, they're even better." <br/>Skeptically, she pushed his hand a little to the side. "What is this?" <br/>"Treasure buns," Hannah replied with a grin and Ari had to smile. <br/>"And with what stuffing?" <br/>Both Hannah and Derek shrugged. "That's the great thing about them... it's a surprise every time." <br/>"Well, I have to say your shields are amazing," Henry noticed at that moment and Ari half turned around. He was standing a little bit away and was examining the air in front of him intensely. <br/>"Can you perceive them?" she wanted to know and rolled her eyes - he could not hear her. <br/>Hannah giggled promptly but before she could make a stupid remark, Henry stepped under the shield again and nodded at Ari appreciatively. <br/>"You have to look really close to see the fine shimmering. Oh. Treasure buns."<br/><br/></p>
<p>"Okay," Derek then began, to break the silence that had been maintained during the meal, "you magic dudes, what is that shadow?" <br/>Ari shrugged. "I have no idea. I mean, I could create one, as a distraction or something, and I read once that more powerful shadows can also deliver short spoken messages. But we don't really know anything about this shadow." <br/>"Well," Hannah threw in dry, "except that it's roaming the streets." <br/>"Hmm," Henry pondered. "I don't know if I- or wizards in general- could make one, but with a crystal ball I could certainly control one." <br/>"Teamwork." Derek grinned and brushed a dirty blonde strand from his eyes. According to Ari, he desperately needed a haircut and more food, but the boy could just as easily have a growth spurt behind him, he was tall enough for that.</p>
<p>"There are different kinds of shadows," Henry then said after a pause for thought. "Some very unpleasant ones, too." <br/>"Like what?" Ari asked and raised an eyebrow. <br/>"Has something to do with releasing magic during magical dreams. It can be dangerous if you get caught up in it somehow." He shrugged. "But Lady Ella Greenpebble is a witch, and witches don't dream, as far as I know." <br/>Now Ari shrugged. "Sorceresses often do, especially healers. Can wizards dream?" <br/>"Not that I know of." Henry shook his head. <br/>"Is this getting us anywhere?" Hannah asked, raising her eyebrows. <br/>"Derek asked," Ari returned and the boy sighed. <br/>"I get it, we have to look at this stupid shadow." <br/>"Right."</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"...okay...slowly...very...slowly...good...exactly...", Henry murmured while Ari wrapped elementary threads around a ruby splinter at a snail's pace. When she had finished one thread, she looked up and frowned as Hannah threw her shirt to the side and shook her curls so that her bare boobs wiggled. The light from the lantern they had placed in the middle of the camp made her skin shimmer, and Derek almost had his eyes fall out of his head.</p>
<p>"What are you doing?" Ari wanted to know critically and Henry also half turned around, only to raise his eyebrows in amazement. <br/>"Mind your own lessons." <br/>"Lessons?" Henry echoed, irritated. <br/>"Hannah has offered to teach me how to make women happy," Derek said slowly, distracted a little by the sight in front of him. <br/>"Oh.", Henry made stunned. <br/>"Hannah!" Ari said admonishingly. <br/>"What? In the end we both get something out of this." Hannah rolled her eyes in annoyance. <br/>"Oh, you'll get your pearl polished, sure, but he'll have to take care of his sword himself, won't he?" <br/>"Well, I've already experience at that," Derek mumbled dryly. <br/>"That doesn't sound very fair," Henry also noticed, and Hannah sighed with another roll of her eyes. <br/>"Yeah, okay, he'll get his sword polished in return. Urgh. Now go back to your jewelry." <br/>Ari sighed. <br/>"This will be an interesting trip," Henry noticed and she nodded. <br/>"You bet it will. All the more so if Derek turns out to be talented."</p>
<p>A little later, however, Henry broke off the exercise with a second splinter because he couldn't concentrate properly thanks to Hannah's noise. Ari didn't mind, she knew Hannah's moans by heart, but Henry definitely had a tent in his pants. <br/>"How can you stand it?" he wanted to know uncomfortably. <br/>Ari shrugged. "I live under the same roof with Hannah and three guys. You get used to it." <br/>"Urgh." <br/>"You know, there's plenty of whores that'll give you a discount." She was dead serious, but Henry kept making that face. <br/>"I know, but that's not my style." <br/>Playing with the splinter, Ari lightly said: "If you want to go with the sound, go ahead. I can create a temporary shield around me so I can sleep." <br/>"Oh... no. No, that's not necessary." In a hurry, Henry shook his head. <br/>In the end, Ari would have preferred a good night's sleep to the slightly cramped conversation that followed.</p>
<p>~</p>
<p>It wasn't until two days later, on the third evening, that Henry's tension reached its limits - but differently than Ari expected. <br/>"Would... would you... I mean...", he licked his lips uncomfortably and she raised her eyebrows. <br/>"Yeah...?" <br/>"I... you don't have to..." <br/>"Spit it out." <br/>"Would you touch me with your magic?" He stared at her boobs, but his face was bright red at the same time. <br/>"With my magic?" Stunned, she looked at him, then giggled. "I'm an air sorceress, but a blowjob isn't <em>that</em> literally." <br/>If possible, the blush deepened on his face. "I like your magic on my skin," he softly admitted, accented by a sensual growl from Derek. Well, Ari couldn't deny that Henry's magic felt good too, but Henry was Henry and that spoiled her fun a little.</p>
<p>"Well, we can try it..." she finally said and reached out her magic hands to him while she herself made herself comfortable on her rolled out bed roll. <br/>Henry moaned softly and shivered visibly, Ari closed her eyes. <br/>It was a very strange feeling to magically touch a man, but on the other hand, air magic was quite practical; it could be everywhere at once. And then she flinched as his magic hands brushed over her lips and gently kneaded her breasts. <br/>"Cut it out, you bastard," she murmured, and he made a pitiful sound. <br/>"Please..." <br/>"Please,<em> what</em>?" <br/>His answer was another pitiful sound and then a strange hiss as he came.</p>
<p>"You'd make a damn fine whore," Hannah remarked dryly a little later and Ari opened her eyes. <br/>"Oh yeah?" <br/>"You don't even have to get yourself dirty." <br/>"Some women go for it," Henry mumbled in between and made a faint gesture. He winced as Derek threw a rag at him. <br/>"Ari doesn't," Hannah said emphatically. <br/>Ari sighed. "Are you all happy now and let me sleep?" <br/>"What about you?" Hannah asked back and Ari shook her head. <br/>"I'll pass." She yawned and muttered, closing her eyes anew: "When we get back, I'm gonna take one of the nice boys..."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Brotherly love has no limits</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The summer rain was so light that it hardly washed the dust out of the air. The fine breeze that blew in addition failed to remove the smell of horses from Ari's nose. It was a oppressively hot day and neither the pseudo-rain nor the pseudo-wind changed anything about that, although it became at least a little bit stronger during the day.</p>
<p>When they reached a crossroads in the late afternoon where there was an unexpectedly large inn, Derek sighed up. <br/>"I'll kiss the Great Mother's feet if I can get a beer now." <br/>Ari almost expected a ribald joke from Hannah, but her friend seemed a little dozy. And then Henry actually had the nerve to say: <br/>"We should ask how far away the next inn is. Maybe we can get there today." <br/>"Do you really think they're gonna give you an honest answer if they lose customers because of that?" Ari wanted to know incredulously and Henry looked irritated at first, then he sighed. <br/>"Probably not, no." <br/>"You don't travel much, do you?" Hannah followed tiredly and he shook his head. <br/>"I used to travel as a kid and hated it. I don't think I've ever left Feather Springs for more than a day or two in the last ten- oh, well, fifteen years." <br/>Hannah wanted to snort in amusement, but then she choked on it and because she was about to get out of the saddle she almost fell to the ground- Ari, herself already with both feet on the dusty cobblestone road, grabbed her arms in a hurry. <br/>"Hey, Derek..." she said over her shoulder, "go on in and announce us. I'm sure in a position like this they have stable boys, so-" <br/>"On my way!"</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The inside of the inn was worn but very well maintained and Ari was pleased to notice the smell of herbs and soap. It was a place where you could spend a night in peace, with a good dinner in your stomach and in winter probably even with the possibility of a hot bath.</p>
<p>Derek was standing at the counter when she entered through the back door, leading to the stables at the back, and waved to her. <br/>The man behind the counter was still young, if anything, not much older than she was. <br/>She went over and nodded in greeting; even before she had finished, he said: <br/>"One of the girls is just finishing up two rooms, and one of the boys will take the luggage upstairs." <br/>She nodded; she had met the boy at the stable door, but she had some of her things right under her arm. "I would put the things right upstairs..." <br/>"Of course... Dina!" <br/>A girl stepped hastily out from behind a worn-out curtain. "Monty?" <br/>"Please show her the rooms four and five." <br/>"Of course."</p>
<p>No sooner had the door closed behind her than it opened again and Hannah stepped in with her two saddlebags. <br/>"Mind if I take a quick nap?" she wanted to know tired while Ari put her own bags next to the first of the small beds. <br/>"Not really. I'm gonna go wash downstairs." <br/>Hannah nodded and ran her fingers through her hair. "Great Mother, how I hate this... why can't we just keep our rhythm?" <br/>"Because riders are anything but inconspicuous at night, especially when they have a magic light so the horses don't break their legs," Ari explained calmly and not for the first time. Like most rogues, Hannah slept most of the day and was nocturnal, but travelling is what normal people do during the day. <br/>In response, Hannah grumbled something incomprehensible and sat down on the bed to take off her boots.</p>
<p>~</p>
<p>Ari came down the stairs and nodded to Monty behind the counter, who nodded with his head towards the guest room. There the other three sat at a table and Hannah raised her hand in greeting, four beer mugs were already standing by. <br/>At another table, five people were sitting, bent over some papers, discussing heatedly, but muffled. One of the two women and one of the three men seemed to be magical, because Ari didn't only feel the two very weakly, they both gave her a quick glance.</p>
<p>"You're such a- " <br/>"Bitch. I know." The non-magical woman interrupted one of the men who seemed pretty small compared to the others. "Try to find a new name, it's getting boring." She sounded bored and Ari suppressed a smile as the guy snorted. <br/>"You're one to talk! The only thing I'll ever hear from you is <em>short</em>." <br/>"That's 'cause you <em>are</em> short!"</p>
<p>Ari sat down at her table between Henry and Hannah and Hannah muttered: <br/>"I don't know what they're up to, but if they keep fighting like this it's not gonna happen." <br/>"I think they sound more like it's normal," Ari returned and Henry sighed. <br/>"But honestly, do you wanna work with people like that?" <br/>"Dinner's coming," Derek threw in and Ari looked up. Dina and an older woman brought steaming bowls of stew, bread and spicy cheese.</p>
<p>"Fuck you, Tris!" hissed the man and Ari saw Hannah rolling her eyes but Tris' response went down in a roll of thunder. <br/>"That's enough, guys," said the companion of the two squabblers, audibly annoyed. <br/>Ari took a slice of bread that wasn't quite fresh anymore, but smelled intensely of onions, and had just torn off a piece when the back door was blown open. <br/>Derek choked in fright and a little absent Henry patted him on the back, but Ari frowned at the dark figure standing in the door frame. A cold breeze blew in, bringing the smell of the summer thunderstorm with it and with the slamming of the door it thundered again. <br/>The newcomer had thrown his saddlebags over his shoulder and sniffed strangely, then he pushed the hood back.</p>
<p>Hannah made a strange sound while Ari stared at Vincent speechlessly. And then she jumped up angrily; Henry tried to hold her by the arm, but missed. <br/>"Vincent!" She took long strides toward him. <br/>"Ari!" He looked at her with relief in his eyes. "Great Mother, I am glad I found you and I'm ha- ow!" <br/>She slapped him in the face. <br/>"Ari!" Hannah and Henry yelled behind her and their chairs scraped across the floor. <br/>"If you can't show me in writing that Cullen knows that-" she started in anger and Vincent raised his hands defensively. <br/>"Listen to me!" <br/>"Ari, calm down!" Hannah grabbed her by the shoulder and she felt her magic bubble. <br/>"Ansgar knows I'm gone," Vincent said hurriedly. <br/>"Ansgar is not in charge!" she hissed and Hannah pulled her back. <br/>"Calm down!" <br/>"It was all right for him!" <br/>"Ansgar's not Guild Master!" She almost screamed, almost. And Vincent flinched. He wanted to help his big brother out of trouble, sure, but he would knowingly and willingly risk everything, his comrades' lives as well as his own. He would jeopardize the whole thing.</p>
<p>"Cullen told you to stay home, Vincent," she said slowly and coldly after Hannah squeezed her shoulder hard. "And for very good reasons we all know." <br/>Vincent looked on the ground ashamed and nodded, barely noticeable. "I know, but - Ari, you don't understand." <br/>"Yes, I do. You may be putting a lot of lives in danger. The lives of people I care about." <br/>"Chrm. Excuse me...?" The guy who was just arguing came up to her. <br/>"What do you want?" Ari wanted to know with an angry frown, but unimpressed he looked up at her- he was almost a head shorter than her. <br/>"We're on our way to Feather Springs-" <br/>"We are not!" Tris interjected. <br/>"- and we could take your friend with us." He smiled wryly. "It's been a while since I talked to Cullen." <br/>Ari sucked the air in and he pulled a ring out of the neckline of his tunic - silver, with a fine black stripe in it. <br/>"Ari, please... let me explain," Vincent asked and she sighed before giving the unknown rogue a slight nod. <br/>"I may take you up on that..." <br/>He returned the nod and she grabbed Vincent by the arm. <br/>"You want to talk? Fine..."</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"I haven't been completely honest," Vincent said softly and Ari raised an eyebrow. <br/>"Why am I not surprised?" She leaned against the tiny table in her room and crossed her arms in front of her chest. <br/>"I should have gone with Arnold and Tom. But Tom and I had a fight, so I stayed." <br/>"You're capable of <em>arguing</em> with Tom?" Now Ari raised both brows in true surprise. <br/>Vincent leaned against the wall opposite her and for a moment she thought he would sink to the ground, but he remained standing, his face contorted in mental pain. "I love Tom." <br/>"That's-" <br/>"For real. I do. Sexually. I told him. And he... didn't think it was funny." <br/>Astonished, she looked at Vincent, who was examining the tips of his boots. <br/>"I know that's not normal. And his reaction is justified. I just... Great Mother, Ari, I just want to apologize and tell him that I'm leaving. I..." He sighed deeply, rubbed his eyes- Ari knew him well enough to know that he would start crying right away, but she still lacked the words. "Yes, Ansgar knows that I have gone to catch up with you. For everybody else I'm on my way to Sunplains, to Moongate." He sniffed softly. "I don't want to go if there's something not right between us, you understand?" His voice was muffled and Ari relaxed from her staring to give him a gentle hug. <br/>"Oh, Vincent..." His confession somehow took the wind out of her sails. "I'm sorry I snapped at you like that." <br/>"It's okay. You're right. I haven't exactly been showering myself with glory these last few years..." <br/>"And I'm still pretty mad at you for that," she confirmed to him, but without interrupting the hug. She had grown up with Don, Vincent and Tom with Don's sister- the two brothers were like family to her.</p>
<p>"Ari, I promise you: I obey you. Every order, every command. But don't send me back." He gently pushed her away and she looked at him, his reddened eyes, the fine sunburn on his nose and cheekbones. "I just want to make sure Tom's okay. That everything's okay between us, and then I'm going to Moongate." <br/>She took a deep breath. "I don't know if I can trust you. Do you understand? If I can rely on you." <br/>He nodded, a new tear rolled down his cheek and his lower lip trembled. <br/>"I'm not going to decide this alone, Vincent." <br/>His gaze twitched up. "No! <em>Please</em>, don't tell the others!" <br/>She shook her head in earnest. "I won't, I promise... But Hannah is of the same rank as us, and I won't ignore her opinion on this." <br/>"Okay," he said softly, almost a whisper. "Okay."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>The original idea for this story is over ten years old and is based on a World of Warcraft fan video. It was, admittedly, a typical "girl sets out to save the guy she loves" story, and by the time I finished it, I had grown out of it. However, I wrote a second part and was pretty unhappy with it at the end, but I couldn't bring myself to rewrite the whole thing either, so the story ended up on the list of unfinished projects.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Nocturnal streets are never really deserted</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The City by the Lake was really not big compared to Feather Springs, but the high city walls alone were impressive. And the view across the lake as they rode along its shore road was simply overwhelming. The city was located on the east shore of the lake, the Greenpebbles' castle on the southern outskirts, on a small headland, so that it was almost two-thirds surrounded by water.</p>
<p>So close to the water it was cooler and a gentle breeze was blowing, which they and the horses visibly enjoyed. Maybe a little too much, because they reached the town just in time before the gates closed and promptly found themselves in a motley crowd of craftsmen, day labourers and merchants.</p>
<p>"What was the name of the guild house again?", Henry asked over the babble of voices and Ari flinched when a woman from the other side nagged shrilly.<br/>
"<em>Blue Pearl</em>," she replied.<br/>
"Sounds like a whore house," Hannah dryly noticed behind her.<br/>
"I think", Vincent said, "it was near the canal gate." The river, which still bore the name <em>Rhion</em>, though the nomads of the free lands had not travelled this far north for a long time, flowed into the lake in the southwest and, as the <em>Little Pearl</em>, flowed north around the City by the Lake and further east to join the <em>Pearl River</em> at Swanford. A canal led through the city itself from the lake to the <em>Little Pearl</em>.</p>
<p>"Derek, be so kind and-" Ari started, but Derek was already dismounting.<br/>
"Yeah, yeah, I got it." He disappeared into the crowd while the small group of them let themselves be carried along the main street until they came to the first big square where the market was being dismantled.<br/>
It was a noisy, colorful, cheerful hustle and bustle, and yet silence would return here in a few hours.</p>
<p>~</p>
<p>Everything at the <em>Blue Pearl</em> was a little too small to be still cozy, and the back room where they met Maximilian was oppressively full with six people. The fact that Maximilian himself looked as if he should rather wield a two-handed sword than the double daggers of the rogues definitely added to the atmosphere. The massive man sighed as he sat down and Ari pressed her lips together - he looked like an actor.<br/>
"I have spent the last days and weeks intensively researching," he started and looked at everybody briefly. "Except for our boys"- the man had the nerve to call the four <em>"our"</em> boys- "a lot more people have disappeared."<br/>
"What people?" Hannah asked immediately and Maximilian frowned minimally, as if he was annoyed at the interruption. Ari didn't like him.<br/>
"Day labourers, sailors, street whores..."<br/>
"People who nobody misses so quickly," Henry said gloomily.<br/>
"Right."<br/>
"But why?" Derek wanted to know. "What does Ella want with all these people?" Right at the start, they had started calling Lady Greenpebble by her first name for convenience.<br/>
"Well, if she really wants to bring a petrified dragon egg back to life, she will need a lot of life energy - and blood is the best way to do it," Ari replied quietly.<br/>
"So we should assume that Tom and the others are already dead?" Vincent asked quietly and surprisingly soundless.<br/>
No one answered until Maximilian cleared his throat.<br/>
"The four were undoubtedly recognizable as rogues and absolutely do not fit the pattern. I would prefer to say they are still alive."<br/>
No one commented on this either, so Maximilian cleared his throat again after another pause.<br/>
"We also tried to take a closer look at the shadow."<br/>
"Tried?", echoed Hannah critically. Apparently, she didn't like Maximilian either.<br/>
"Yes, we tried." Maximilian nodded briefly. "It is not only a shadow, but seems more like a cloud... like an intelligent cloud. It knows when it is being observed and reacts accordingly."<br/>
"Did it attack you?" Ari asked slightly worried and he shook his head.<br/>
"But I guess it would have sooner or later. One of the guys got it pretty riled up, lured it halfway across town, but in the end he got scared."<br/>
"I don't like that," Henry mumbled and frowned, Ari did the same. That didn't sound like a shadow the way she could create one, but the dream shadows Henry mentioned didn't react to impulses like that.</p>
<p>"We've got to look at this thing," Vincent said.<br/>
Derek made an uncomfortable sound.<br/>
"But we should also try to get to the castle," Hannah said thoughtfully and Ari nodded, but then asked:<br/>
"Is there anything else we should know?"<br/>
Maximilian chewed on his lower lip for a moment and then shrugged. "I've talked to a lot of people, but all this is getting us nowhere. However... I could talk to the mayor again."<br/>
"Shall we come with you?" Henry asked gloomily, but Maximilian shook his head.<br/>
"Not for a while, no. So far we're getting along quite well."<br/>
"Okay," Hannah said quietly and nodded thoughtfully, "then we'll lie down for a while and then start the night."<br/>
Ari got up first and her chair went straight into the wall. "I hope I don't have to mention that you better not play games with us," she said to Maximilian, who raised his eyebrows in honest amazement. "Just because Cullen trusts you, I ain't gonna do the same."</p>
<p>~</p>
<p>With a quiet groan Vincent let himself fall onto the roof next to Ari; his boots made practically no noise - thanks to the enchantments. Ari and Henry had woven them with painstaking detail work in armor, weapons and jewelry during the journey and Ari had found out that her own way of applying protective spells to things was not so far away from <em>'real'</em> enchantments. Henry was actually impressed that she had taught herself to do it.</p>
<p>"Even if the town isn't the biggest," Vincent whispered, "but finding a shadow here in the middle of the night isn't gonna be much fun."<br/>
"Nobody said we had to find it on the first night," Ari returned and peered down the alley where something moved- a rat.<br/>
"The sooner we find it, the sooner we find a clue," Vincent grumbled and she shook her head.<br/>
"I don't think so."<br/>
"Oh no? So it's pure coincidence that-"<br/>
"I don't think it's coincidence," she interrupted him, "but Ella will keep her secrets in the castle and not in a walking shadow cloud."<br/>
Hannah and Derek were on their way to the castle to check it out; Henry was to be somewhere close by.<br/>
Vincent rumbled softly and then they started moving again two streets further.<br/>
<br/>
"Can you feel that magic storm that Tom was talking about?" he asked and she shook her head.<br/>
"No magic storm, no, but a lot of magic. Much of it is old and belongs to some buildings, there are many mobile spells - probably from the merchants - and what is definitely in the air is air magic. I bet there's an air sorceress down by the harbor or just outside of town offering her services to the ship captains."<br/>
"And witch magic?"<br/>
"Probably included, but I can't tell the difference in detail." She shrugged, and then they continued on through the town.</p>
<p>A few guards on patrol, a few homeless, rats, pub customers. Nothing out of the ordinary. Maximilian had instructed his rogues - there were only two dozen in the city all in all - to hold back the next few nights, so there was absolutely nothing going on above the sidewalks.</p>
<p>"What's actually going on with Tom...?", Ari asked much later when they were sitting on a warehouse near the harbor.<br/>
"What do you mean?" Vincent asked back strangely innocently and shifted the weight; the roof crunched.<br/>
"Well... I mean, we all live together, we've all seen each other naked more or less often... but... I mean... your own <em>brother</em> is rather unusual."<br/>
"Don't tell me you don't find him attractive and just sleep with him out of boredom."<br/>
She snorted. "It's been at least 12 years since I slept with Tom, Vince. I've moved on."<br/>
"That sounds mean."<br/>
"But it's not. All I'm saying is I've found a type of man I like. Sure, Tom's good-looking, but..." She shrugged. "That wasn't the real point, either."<br/>
Vincent sighed, and then they jumped over the rooftops in the dock area until they were sitting on the dock master's station.</p>
<p>"A girl broke my heart," Vincent then said quietly and a little melancholy and Ari wondered how long it must have been since then, because she had only ever heard Vincent express interest in men before. "I was 15, I think..." he said promptly, as if he had heard her unspoken question. "Tom tried to comfort me. And at some point it occurred to me that... that I never need to fear that one day he might stop loving me, like the girl."<br/>
"To speak of true love at 15 is also daring," Ari cautiously remarked and almost saw with relief that Vincent was smiling.<br/>
"A little, I know... but still. Tom's love is just there. It's unwavering. He would never hurt me, he protects me, is there for me. It's kind of perfect."<br/>
"Except Tom doesn't love you the way you want him to." she softly pointed out. "Partly because he likes women."<br/>
"I know." Now Vincent sounded a little pathetic. "I know. And I'm his little brother." He sighed. "Tom has-" He broke off and bent over a little. "You see that?" he whispered, even quieter than the already whispered conversation.</p>
<p>Ari also bent over, holding on to the chimney of the house and then swallowed hard. A strange thing came staggering down the street. At first glance it looked like someone who had wrapped himself in a deep black hooded coat and stumbled drunk, but at second glance it was not quite right. The edges of the figure were strangely fuzzy, frayed; the movements more like a snake-like gliding than steps.</p>
<p>"Great Mother..." it escaped her silently.<br/>
"What is that?" Vincent breathed and she shook her head.<br/>
"I don't know." That wasn't nearly the kind of shadow she could have created. Motionless, she sat on the roof and watched it move down the street. One time it looked like a hand with long claws slipped out of its side, but Ari could have imagined that. What she definitely wasn't imagining were the briefly flashing red eyes, because Vincent almost painfully clawed a hand into her arm.</p>
<p>"Great Mother, what is that?" His voice was pressed, as if he really wanted to scream in panic.<br/>
"I don't know, Vince," she repeated, laboriously tearing the eyes away. She looked at Vincent for a moment before she looked back at the shadow thing. It had gotten closer, but now it turned into an alley. Vincent sighed in relief. But something else caught Ari's attention.<br/>
On the other side of the alley where the thing had disappeared, something big was squatting on the roof.</p>
<p>"Vince... please tell me that's Henry."<br/>
"What? Where? <em>Oh</em>."<br/>
But it wasn't Henry, because the figure moved, took on human contours, but the wrong ones- Henry didn't have a torso that sturdy.</p>
<p>"We should follow the shadow a little bit, don't you think?" Ari muttered uneasily and Vincent made a very unhappy sound before he said:<br/>
"Probably."<br/>
Still they exchanged a long look in the dim moonlight before they took a running start one after the other on the roof ridge and jumped over the street. Ducked they hurried on and then it was only her discipline that kept Ari from screaming when another figure appeared behind a corner.<br/>
But this time it was really Henry.<br/>
"Great Mother, it's you. Good. You saw the shadow thing, right?"<br/>
"Of course, why do you think-"<br/>
"Who was that on the roof?" Ari interrupted Vincent's angry reply and Henry made a questioning sound.<br/>
"There!" Vincent pointed as inconspicuously as possible in the right direction and Ari made a face; the figure was back and it almost seemed as if it followed the shadow as well.<br/>
"A rogue who disobeys Maximilian's orders?" Henry surmised, not really convinced.<br/>
"And then refuses to reveal himself to us? Stupid," Vincent gave back.<br/>
The figure crouched on the edge of the roof, strangely hunched and bent over as if it was about to jump at any moment.<br/>
"Looks a bit like a gargoyle," Henry then murmured with a shiver, expressing Ari's thoughts.<br/>
"Only the wings are missing," she muttered back and they looked at each other. Goose bumps crawled up Ari's back and from her memory rose the shrill screeching that these creatures gave off in battle.<br/>
"Do those critters have weapons?" Vincent wanted to know quietly and pulled Ari out of her stare.<br/>
"Bludgeons at most," Henry replied.<br/>
"Whoever it is has a long dagger, it would appear," Vincent said silently. Probably he was happy to be able to concentrate on the less scary unknown thing.<br/>
<br/>
</p>
<p>Now it was the three of them who followed the shadow, which seemed to wander aimlessly through the city, on the opposite side of the street accompanied by whoever. Well, it was certainly a human being, probably even a rogue, but it was a little scary nonetheless. Originally, Henry had also gone off on his own, because they feared to attract too much attention together- magical, of course. But apparently that didn't seem to bother the shadow, nor did the fact that it was being watched.</p>
<p>"Why did Maximilian say the shadow would notice observers?" Ari murmured thoughtfully at one point.<br/>
"Maybe it just ignores us," Vincent assumed hopefully.<br/>
"Don't be silly, Vincent," Henry replied and added to Ari: "Maybe it doesn't consider us... hmm... dangerous because we are magic."<br/>
"But that guy over there is not magic as well."<br/>
"Did you feel him out?"<br/>
"I wouldn't take that chance with that shadow thing around."<br/>
"Maybe we should."<br/>
"What?" Ari and Vincent did it at the same time.<br/>
"Provoke it magically, I mean," Henry quickly explained and Ari shook her head.<br/>
"Why?"<br/>
"Because this shadow is nowhere near what I imagined."<br/>
"This thing is not a subject for study, man," Vincent said with an audible frown and Henry sighed.<br/>
"Of course not. But whatever it is, I'd hate to run into that thing when we're about to steal a girl from the castle."<br/>
They remained silent for a moment, then scurried a few houses up the road.</p>
<p>"Really... a small spark of light is enough..." Henry said and Ari sighed. Basically he was right.<br/>
"As you want."<br/>
Vincent gave a disapproving growl, but she bent over and checked out the shadow. It almost hurt to look at it for a while but when it stopped and it looked like it was turning back and forth to look at the surroundings, she created a little spark of light right next to him.<br/>
"Gnah!" With a choked scream, she fell backwards, only Vincent's quick reaction saved her from falling off the roof. Icy cold had grabbed her for a tiny moment and as Vincent and Henry pulled her back onto the roof ridge, she realized this shadow thing could have killed her effortlessly.<br/>
"Ari?" Henry flicked right in her face.<br/>
"This thing has hands!" Vincent hissed. "Hands! Henry, what is this thing?"<br/>
"Ari, is everything okay?"<br/>
"Yes," she muttered and nodded.<br/>
"Henry!"<br/>
"I don't know, Vincent, damn it!" Henry hissed back and added directed to Ari: "Booze. A lot. Right away."<br/>
She nodded, feeling strangely numb, and came staggeringly to her feet.<br/>
On the other side of the street the lonely figure also straightened up and Ari almost feared he would attack - as stupid as the idea might be - but then he seemed to nod and turned away.<br/>
"Booze for everyone," she murmured and Henry nodded silently.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>A friend of mine who's beta-reading "The Beginning of the Fall" asked me some very interesting questions, and the resulting discussion ended with a "How about you adapt your old rogue story a bit?" <br/>Honestly, the whole thing fit like a glove, and it's almost embarrassing how easy it was to adjust the world details. Even the cross-points with "The Beginning of the Fall" itself came naturally and there you go... certain original hints suddenly make sense. (Vincent's focus on Tom- as an example- gets a comprehensible reason.)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Family is not always based on blood ties</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The hard alcohol was no longer burning when Ari emptied the glass. The cold had disappeared from her inside, replaced by drunken heat, but a certain horror echoed after. The awakened memories of the gargoyles... well, they would give her one or two nightmares, but the feeling when the shadow had reached for her whole being, just by touching the spark she had created...</p>
<p>She grabbed the bottle - or wanted to, because someone first grabbed her wrist and gently pushed her arm back onto the table. <br/>"That's enough, don't you think?" Derek sounded concerned. <br/>She laughed softly and rubbed her forehead with her free hand. "To dispel the nightmares? No." <br/>He loosened his grip, hesitated, then took her hand and squeezed it lightly. "I didn't think you were afraid of anything." <br/>"Only very <em>stupid</em> people don't have fears, Derek," she returned, tongue heavy. <br/>"Maybe, but... I didn't even see that thing and..." Was he trying to calm her or his own fears? She smiled wryly. <br/>"Go to sleep and stop worrying. We'll talk it over calmly tomorrow." She should go to bed too, urgently, before her mumbling became really incomprehensible. <br/>He nodded, but didn't let go of her.<br/>"Derek..." <br/>"I'm scared," he said frankly and with big eyes. <br/>She sat on one of the bar stools and looked up at him, even if only physically. <br/>"I almost said <em>no</em>, but then Henry said it was about Murdoch. He's... a bit like a father, you know ? And I'm afraid we're too late, that this shadow... has <em>eaten</em> them all, and the castle is basically magically sealed-"<br/>"Derek!" she sharply interrupted his hasty stammering and he flinched. "Go to sleep." <br/>"I don't think I can now." He still squeezed her hand and she sighed. <br/>"If you need a comforting hug, wake Vincent." <br/>Immediately he turned red and let go of her in a hurry. "That... oh, no, that's not what I mean!" <br/>"I'm serious, Vince is good at comforting." She slipped off her chair and wrung herself another smile. "We'll talk tomorrow, okay?" Into his nod she already turned away and stumbled, was caught by him and muttered a curse she didn't understand herself.</p>
<p>She trembled as he helped her up the stairs and brusquely pushed him away as she reached the door to the room she shared with Hannah. <br/>"Sleep well, Ari," he murmured softly and sounded strangely lost, but she just nodded slowly.</p>
<p>~</p>
<p>The memories of the dream about the Hall of Stone, the gargoyles and her childhood friends already faded away when Ari sat down at the table, limbs heavy, between Hannah and Henry. The smell of herbal tea lay thick in the air, almost unpleasantly covering the smell of fresh bread and spicy hard sausage.<br/>"Today is the mass in honor of the drowned", Maximilian said and passed Ari a tea cup. "And the day after tomorrow is the marriage of the lake." <br/>"What a thing?" Hannah asked irritated and Ari took a sip of tea, which tasted strongly like peppermint and was almost too hot.<br/>"The tradition originates from the nomads and in their sense the lake is male. Every year at this time a girl is chosen to be the bride of the lake for one year. When the year is over, she is symbolically drowned and mourned - today." <br/>"That's really weird," Derek commented- chewing- on Maximilian's explanation, but he just shrugged. <br/>"Our lords still maintain thin contact with the nomads in the Golden City. First. Second, the people love the traditions and even if the drowned bride has to leave the city forever, she gets a lot of respect around here. Every family secretly wants that for their daughters." <br/>"Weird or not," Ari said sullenly and with a slight headache, "but if the Greenpebbles attend the festivities we can take a look at the castle." Or better: Ari and Henry could take a good look at the protective spells and then figure out how they got past it. And focusing on that was better than thinking about the shadow.</p>
<p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p>
<p>The six of them squatted on a roof near the city's large church and watched the procession slowly approaching. Not that Ari knew much about the nobles, but Lord Greenpebble seemed much older than she had imagined him to be. The young woman at his side - rather a girl - who supported him by the arm, must have been Aphra, because the woman at his other side clearly radiated magical power.<br/><br/>"He doesn't look very healthy," Vincent remarked quietly. <br/>"Three years ago his wife and two daughters died of the winter fever that came from the coast up to here," Maximilian said gloomily. "Shortly afterwards, he married Ella, which of course fueled the rumors, but in the end, winter fever comes to us every few years." Even though the explanations were all quite nice, Ari rolled her eyes, for Maximilian apparently liked to hear himself talk. <br/>Besides the lord and lady and their ward, there was also the girl which lied in state - the bride of the lake - who had officially drowned, but was still very much alive and uncomfortable sliding around on her stretcher, several guards and of course a handful of priests. The spectators, who lined the streets and filled the square in front of the church, were silent except for a soft rustle and murmur, which Ari found actually scary.<br/>In a strangely caring gesture Aphra helped the Lord up the seven steps of the church and two guards opened the church doors. <br/>"And now it is time to look at the castle," Maximilian announced, as if everyone else didn't know. "We have about two hours." <br/>"Derek, are you going to stay here and play lookout or are you coming with us?" Henry wanted to know busily and the boy sighed. <br/>"I'm staying here. You never know." <br/>"All right." Ari nodded at him, Vincent patted him briefly on the shoulder and then they slid off the roof on the side facing away from the square.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Where the castle was not surrounded by water, there were buildings relevant to the castle- like a big guardhouse right next to the access road and a surprisingly large barracks. At the pier of the castle a few boats were bobbing on the water and Ari wondered for a moment if it might have been more reasonable from a magical point of view to come from the water, but Henry, who obviously had had the same thought a little earlier, said: <br/>"The shield is extremely stable and firmly anchored with rune stones. And it reaches unpleasantly far." <br/>"Yeah," Hannah said stretched, "we have noticed that." Her right glove was singed from the day before. <br/>Ari nodded and searched for the shield, followed its course and grimaced. "She must be seriously concerned about her safety." <br/>"Or the safety of everything in the castle," Henry remarked dryly. <br/>"She will hardly be afraid of simple thieves," Maximilian added, and Vincent sighed a little annoyed. <br/>"Are you coming through or not?" <br/>Now Henry sighed as Ari shook her head. <br/>"No. And weakening or even destroying the shield would make her notice." <br/>"Attention is the last thing we need," Hannah murmured and Maximilian added: "Who knows what she does when she's upset."</p>
<p>They remained silent for a moment, standing inconspicuously on a street corner as if they were talking. <br/>Henry broke away from the group and disappeared for a moment into an alleyway that ended blind at a protective wall erected towards the lake, as if he had to pee. When he came back, he looked at Vincent seriously. <br/>"Ari and I can probably cut a temporary hole in the shield. You, Hannah and Derek could slip through, as long as you keep all the magic stuff outside." <br/>"We can do that?" Ari asked in surprise and Henry smiled crooked. <br/>"Well, at least we can try." Then his grin disappeared, he noisily snuffled and spat out. "Although probably just once." <br/>"Great prospects," Hannah muttered doubtingly and Ari frowned skeptically. <br/>"Have you ever done this before?" <br/>He nodded thoughtfully. "Even if not with a shield that powerful." <br/>"What choice do we have?" Vincent grimly asked. "I mean, if missing people can be hidden somewhere, it's behind such protective measures." It was a rhetorical question because of course they had no choice, whether they wanted to look for their own people or get Aphra out of there; Ari didn't even think about the fucking dragon egg, it was a little too much for her liking.</p>
<p>~</p>
<p>"What you are up to is forbidden," Ari said seriously and Henry nodded. He put the ring with the ruby on it on the table and looked at her sternly. <br/>"I know. Damn it, I know, Ari, but what are we gonna do? How do you prioritize here?" He wanted to use blood magic and she didn't like that in the least. <br/>"My priorities?" She raised her eyebrows because the question was actually completely unnecessary. <br/>"Yes." He nodded again and she laughed softly. <br/>"I want our friends back. Whether we kill the witch in the process or get the girl out of there doesn't really matter to me. I just don't like staying in a town with a shadow like that lurking at night any longer than I have to." <br/>"You see," Henry said slowly and sat back. "That's what I mean. As far as Aphra's concerned- damn it, that's a nobles' business. But our own boys?" <br/>Ari chewed on her lower lip and looked at the ring again. "If Ella notices this..." <br/>"Do you think she can send the shadow after us during the day?" <br/>"I pray she can't. But I fear she controls it from the castle, whatever it is." <br/>"Well," Henry clicked his tongue. "I'm afraid it's all connected somehow. And under the circumstances, I think blood magic is quite justified." <br/>"But you don't know that, Henry..." Ari protested weakly and made a face. "And Lord Bloodspear can say all sorts of things when he wants his daughter back. The girl seemed very concerned about Lord Greenpebble earlier." <br/>"May be, but is it her free will to act like this? Witches can affect the mind in very different ways than you or I can." Henry raised an eyebrow and Ari sighed.</p>
<p>"So we don't care what Ella is up to in secret?" she asked after a moment. <br/>"Not as long as she has our boys captive or eliminated for whatever reason," Henry replied slowly. "And I'm afraid the four were too curious." <br/>"How could they have gotten past the spell? The only artificial gate in it is on the road leading to the castle, as you yourself so nicely pointed out." <br/>Henry shrugged. "How should I know? Perhaps they were watching the shadow or her other henchmen. There are a lot of ways to be in the wrong place at the wrong time." <br/>"That's true," Ari murmured agreeing, but it still didn't seem right to her. Why would four foreign rogues disappear and the local rogues remain untroubled?</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Unpleasant surprises seldom turn to good</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Had it not been for such a serious reason, it could almost have been funny to see Hannah, Derek and Vincent standing in the <em>Blue Pearl's</em> little kitchen, scrubbing themselves obsessively. They scrubbed the magic from their bodies and Ari admitted that it might not have been the best idea to enchant the armours completely because among other things all three of them had a new pair of boots now.</p>
<p>"Fiona says your clothes are dry," Ari said after watching the washing orgy for a moment. <br/>"Very nice." Hannah squeezed water out of her curls. <br/>"Has Henry left already?" Derek asked and looked up, Ari nodded. <br/>"He wanted to look at the shield to find the best cutting point." <br/>"I thought he did that yesterday," Vincent muttered and grabbed a towel which he wrapped around his hips. <br/>"He did, but it's a really unfavorable position." Ari made a somewhat helpless gesture. "I mean, I’m quite good at don’t-look-at-me-spells, but for a group like us, in a highly visible place where one wrong move could set off the alarm of the shield... hmm... rather no." <br/>"It's okay," Hannah said, now wrapping a towel around her body as well. <br/>"Roderick said earlier that we had several hours, but Maximilian looked pretty unhappy," Derek then noticed sniffling and Ari sighed. She had already noticed the slight discord between Maximilian and his deputy and this didn't help to increase her confidence in the local rogues.<br/>"The ceremony and the celebration will take several hours, that's right, but I think we should expect Lord Greenpebble to retire earlier," Ari replied and Vincent nodded, his eyebrows twitched. <br/>"The man must theoretically be about the same age as King Steven. That's really not an age to die."<br/>"You can always die of a broken heart," sighed Hannah theatrically and rubbed her legs dry. <br/>"It's more like a pierced heart," Derek muttered and Ari snorted. <br/>"I'll tell Fiona to bring you your stuff. Hurry up a little, the cat's leaving the house soon."</p>
<p>~</p>
<p>In a shady corner, where the guardhouse towered architecturally valuable over a side wing of the barracks, Henry had found a weak spot. Ari hadn't noticed it, but Henry was also the one who had worked out the plan.<br/>"Okay, Ari, I need your blood." <br/>"Urgh." Hannah didn't look too enthusiastic, but Ari pushed up her sleeve and held out her arm; hurting herself she couldn't do. She hissed as he cut much deeper than she expected and hissed again as he smeared the ruby ring with the blood that was pouring out. <br/>Derek took a deep breath, but Vincent growled: <br/>"No comment, okay?"<br/>The boy made a tortured sound, but now Henry growled warningly. Very slowly he let the bloodstained ring levitate into the shield and then lowered it until it lay on the ground. Then fine red threads began to radiate from the ring.<br/>"More blood", Henry ordered quietly and Ari pressed the wound with a distorted face so that a few more drops of blood appeared. Henry picked them up with magic fingers and smeared them on the shield; the red threads became stronger. Ari had a rough idea of what he was doing, but she couldn't have reproduced it herself. <br/>She watched spellbound as the mixture of magic and sorceress blood made the shield pretend to be intact while a loophole grew in it.<br/>"Okay..." Henry sounded strained, "you can go through now. When you come back, leave a symbol for the others so the last one can take the ring." <br/>"All right," Derek said, and though he hadn't been the most enthusiastic before, he was now the first to slip through the gap and scurry around a corner. <br/>Vincent nodded seriously at both Henry and Ari and followed Derek; Hannah sighed and surprised Ari by breathing a kiss on her mouth. "See you later."</p>
<p> </p>
<p>A few minutes later Ari and Henry strolled along the periphery of the celebration and bought filled dumplings at one of the many food stalls, although it was actually not yet lunchtime and Ari wasn't really hungry either, but they had to do something to not stand out.<br/>"Tell me", Henry then started and licked his fingers, "what happens if Arnold and Tom can't get back into the council?" <br/>Surprised, Ari raised an eyebrow. "Well what's gonna happen? Their seats will be reassigned." She thought the question was a little pointless because the answer was obvious. "And before you ask, there is a list of possible candidates."<br/>"Who's on it?" With fingers still greasy and dirty, Henry ran them through his hair; he should have had a good, long bath like the other three. <br/>"Murdoch," she replied quietly and Henry snorted. <br/>"Really?" <br/>She nodded thoughtfully. "Two fire sorceresses are on it, but I don't know them, they're not from Feather Springs." <br/>"Ah, wait... Sarah and... I forgot." Henry nodded. <br/>"Do you know them?" <br/>"I met Sarah a few years ago. She has a real temper. Stationed somewhere south." <br/>"Well, Corry has a nice temperament too," Ari replied, referring to another possible candidate. Since Henry was grinning, he probably knew who she was talking about. <br/>"Oh, come on, he made it? I thought the guy had kicked himself out." <br/>"Nah, that was Steve. The two of them went up to the front with the bastard. Dumb move, if you ask me, they're both dodgy, but hey..." She shrugged and Henry nodded again.<br/><br/>Chatting, they roamed the city humming with celebration and subtle magic. Most of the shops were closed, only the really desperate street whores could be seen - but the city guards made their rounds anyway.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"Ari?" <br/>"Hmm?" <br/>"Don't freak out now." <br/>"What? Why?" Irritated, she looked at Henry and watched him disappear into an alley and climb up the wall there. <br/>"Come." <br/>"Henry, what are you doing? We agreed-" <br/>"Come on." <br/>With a sigh, she climbed up behind him, and as she crouched beside him on the edge of the roof, he said softly: <br/>"Ordinary people rarely look up." <br/>"Henry," she said with a warning and a frown. <br/>"There," he said simply, pointing his chin in one direction. "Our human gargoyle." <br/>She had to lean a little to the side, but then she saw what Henry meant half hidden behind a wooden construction. "And why shouldn't I freak out now?" she wanted to know critically; the guy was watching the street below him. <br/>"Someone was watching us, following us," Henry replied slowly and then hesitantly added: "And I think it's Tom." <br/>Stunned, her head jerked around and Henry flinched a tiny bit. "What makes you think so?" she asked sharply. <br/>His nostrils trembled before he replied: "I saw his face when he turned away. Well, more his profile, but..." <br/>Ari couldn't prevent her face from distorting and she leaned aside again to look at the human gargoyle.</p>
<p>Only the guy was gone. <br/>"Damn it," she murmured and looked again at Henry, who indicated a shrug. Tom's features matched what she had seen of the observer before. "That's not good, not good at all," she muttered and looked around quickly in all directions, but the roofs seemed empty. <br/>"No," Henry agreed with her and seemed a little uncomfortable; admittedly, it made her a little nervous that his hand was on the dagger. "We should return to within sight of the shield," he said quietly, and she nodded. <br/>"Okay," she murmured and nodded again, this time more decisively. "Go."</p>
<p>She straightened up, jumped over the narrow alley and had only taken two more steps when she saw something out of the corner of her eye. Even before she could turn her head properly, Henry gave a warning cry, but at the same moment something hit her in the side and pushed her off the roof. <br/>"Ari!" <br/>Thanks to her magic, she landed on her feet, took a step and looked up. Henry's magic flashed but seemed to have no effect. The guy who had been watching them briefly appeared in her field of vision, daggers out.<br/>The street on which she was standing was deserted, so she pulled herself up by a window, reached the next floor via the balustrade of a tiny balcony and pulled herself up to the roof.</p>
<p>"Ari! Do something!" Henry sounded tense, almost desperate, and she turned around. He was definitely no combat rogue, but it probably wouldn't have made much difference against Tom - he was one of the best. His face was an expressionless mask and only a short flash of surprise came over him when Ari unbalanced him with a magic blast of wind; she was certainly not a combat sorceress either. <br/>But it was enough for Henry to get out of there and with another blast of air she made Tom stumble so far that he half slipped off the roof - and with such a skill that almost seemed like magic he used his momentum and jumped.</p>
<p>Presumably, she thought, he was magically influenced. And although the probability was high, she couldn't bring herself to attack him directly, but gave him the chance to climb onto the roof completely.<br/>He looked at her, raising the daggers into attack position, and paused. "Ari." His voice was blank, but for a brief moment there was painful recognition in his eyes. <br/>"Tom." She drew her daggers, mirroring his position. "Wanna dance?" It was the old ritualized question of a practice fight and actually Ari only asked it so she wouldn't have to admit that Tom frightened her a little. If she was imagining that it was all just a game...</p>
<p>He shot forward, both daggers thrust at her from the sides, and she slid forward, let herself fall and held on to the ridge of the roof with one hand while she swung halfway across the sloping side of the roof and Tom made a strange leap. The few times she had tried this maneuver without any supporting magic had ended painfully- mostly down the street- but now she drew her magic to herself, around her, and she came back up on her feet as Tom turned around.</p>
<p>A rogue fight on the rooftops of the city in broad daylight- she prayed that Henry was right and normal people rarely looked up. Tom fought differently than usual, harder and more ruthless, but at the same time less defined, his movements were not as precise as usual. It didn't take Ari long to realize that, and it didn't take her long to realize that he was trying to steer her towards the castle- which wasn't so bad in itself, after all she and Henry had been on their way there - but she didn't have to fool herself either, because without her magic she would have been beaten by Tom. Next to Ansgar and Cullen he was the best fighter she knew.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>In fights like this she lost all sense of time relatively quickly. Henry called out for her two or three times, but she didn't have enough concentration left for him. But what really distracted her was Vincent's voice. She didn't understand his words, but turned her eyes away and although she backed away at the same time, Tom caught her. <br/>The tip of his dagger scraped her left cheek and for a few heartbeats the spell on him seemed to be broken. There was horror in his gaze, his hand trembled briefly and he retreated minimally. Simultaneously with the belated blooming of the sharp pain in Ari's cheek, Vincent roared: <br/>"Tom! Tom, what are you doing?" <br/>Tom's head jerked around and the tension returned to his posture. <br/>Ari seized the moment. Out of a step she let her magic jump ahead- but instead of lying around Tom as she had planned it, the magic was pushed back and swept Ari off the roof.</p>
<p>While she was able to cushion the fall at the last moment with a bold grab for the rain gutter, she registered with surprise that the impulse had come from his loins. She didn't have time for deeper musing, though, because Tom jumped after her, almost knocked her down and then threw a small dagger out of a turn. <br/>Henry screamed and Ari attacked Tom from behind, noticing from the corners of her eyes that Henry was only clutching his left shoulder.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Tom had expected this because he turned further and gave her a kick in the stomach which she practically ran into. <br/>While she fell to her knees choking, Tom threw another dagger.<br/>Just in time she raised her eyes to see Vincent jump from a roof in the middle of the flight path and staggered backwards to the ground as the dagger hit him in the chest.</p>
<p><em>No!</em> She didn't have enough breath to scream, Vincent remained completely silent and Henry made a strange choking sound. <br/>And then Tom turned to her and gave her an almost gentle kick against her shoulder so that she fell on her bottom and had to look up at him. Again the pain came late and suggested she had one or two broken ribs, but that didn't matter for now.<br/>Tom looked at her, cold and merciless, and yet he turned the dagger in his hand; he wanted to beat her unconscious with the pommel. <br/>She raised her hand and he shook his head weakly, but it was not a pleading gesture, she reached for his privates. The heavy leather trousers protected him from her fingers but not from her concentrated magic- whatever protective spell emanated from there reacted violently but was too weak and Tom sank to the ground with a surprised whimper.</p>
<p>Her hand was half- numb and her head was booming loud enough to drown out everything else for a moment - even the sounds of her own vomiting.</p>
<p>"Ari..." <br/>With the sleeve she wiped her mouth. <br/>"Help me with the dagger..." <br/>She raised her gaze and came staggeringly to her feet. Henry knelt beside Vincent and clutched the dagger in his shoulder. Since Vincent was very obviously dead, Henry was hardly referring to the dagger in his chest, and so she walked slowly over to him, fighting a new wave of nausea. Without much hesitation she tore off Henry's shirt sleeve, folded it and waited for Henry to nod, then grabbed the dagger. <br/>Quality work, she thought, and pulled it out with a jerk; Henry made a dull strained sound, but didn't scream. <br/>"Oh Great Mother..." he finally muttered in agony as Ari pressed the makeshift compress on the wound. <br/>"Hold tight," she muttered back and as he nodded in response to the prompt, he asked: <br/>"What about Tom?"<br/>Ari half-turned and frowned. "Unconscious. He is surrounded by a protection and/or control spell and-" <br/>Excited shouts rang out in the background and then the barracks - only two street corners away- came clearly audible to life. <br/>"I fear I <em>may have</em> indirectly knocked out Ella as well..." <br/>"Ugh." Henry did ominously and got up awkwardly. "If we're unlucky, she now knows your magic." <br/>"Hmm." Ari nodded thoughtfully and then grabbed Henry's healthy arm hastily when hurried boot steps could be heard. She pulled him into an alley, hardly more than an irritating gap between two houses, and put a don't-look-at-me-spell on them.</p>
<p>"There!" someone yelled harshly. "The lady's bodyguard!" At least four men started talking at once and into the confusion, Henry mumbled: <br/>"We need a healer. Both of us." His makeshift compress was already soaked with blood and smudged his fingers. <br/>"And we have to get Hannah and Derek-" Ari was holding her breath when suddenly a broad-shouldered knight peered into the alley. <br/>Henry gave her a minimal elbow nudge and pointed up with a single finger. <br/>Derek crouched above them, leaning carefully forward and glanced around almost scared.<br/>And then he fell with a dagger in his back at the feet of the knight who was still standing in front of the alley.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. You got the tools, I got the people</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ari ran over the roofs of Feather Springs. Actually it was pointless - a few minutes more or less didn't make any difference now, apart from the fact that she might have to spend hours looking for Cullen or waiting for him. And yet she did it, moving the tense muscles after she and Hannah had been rushing themselves and the horses for the last few days.</p>
<p>She thought of Vincent and how they hadn't even got a chance to say good-bye to him- the city guards had taken his body.<br/>
She thought of Tom, Lady Ella's bodyguard, and him being magically controlled.<br/>
She thought of poor Derek and got angry because someone had murdered him from behind.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>In front of the <em>Black Dagger</em>, she jumped down onto the street and the trio, who were squatting outside on doorman duty, looked up in mild surprise.<br/>
"Hey..." said one of the men, and she nodded a greeting.<br/>
"Is Cullen in?"<br/>
"Yo, but he's in conversation," another man said bored and she nodded at him, too, before she went in.<br/>
It was too early to be really well frequented, but it still created a homey atmosphere the <em>Blue Pearl</em> was not capable of. Ari had missed it.</p>
<p>"Hey, Ari, wait up!" Someone called out for her, but she just raised her hand in a <em>"has to wait"</em> gesture.<br/>
"Cullen's busy," John gave her a warning.<br/>
"I don't care," she called back and John sighed audibly before she opened the door to the back area and turned to Cullen's small study. She and Hannah already had a general idea of what to do now- although Hannah didn't really like it- and she had been thinking back and forth about how to convince Cullen, but when she burst into his study without knocking, the nice phrases slipped her mind.</p>
<p>Which may have been because Cullen was busy fucking a whore into the table.</p>
<p>"Oh," Ari made surprised. Cullen gave two more little distracted thrusts while he was already running bright red.<br/>
"Ari..." He cleared his throat in embarrassment; under other circumstances his shyness in this matter would have almost been cute.<br/>
"We have to talk," she said slowly and somewhat out of focus.<br/>
The whore turned her head. "You can go ahead," she said patronizingly and Ari rolled her eyes.<br/>
"Hannah and I have an idea. It might not be a very good one and probably not feasible, but it's an idea."<br/>
Cullen, still holding the whore's legs in the air like frozen, raised an eyebrow. "An idea or a solution?"<br/>
Ari made a helpless gesture and he nodded, lowering his eyes to the woman, but didn't seem to see her at all.<br/>
"I've spoken to a friend, a sorceress..."<br/>
"Spoken or... <em>spoken</em>?" Ari pointed meaningfully to the whore, who snorted in indignation and then made a low squeal as Cullen retreated jerkily.<br/>
"With <em>words</em>," he said angrily, but as the blush crept back into his cheeks Ari didn't quite believe it.<br/>
The whore stood up and straightened her clothes, Cullen pressed a few coins into her hand.</p>
<p>When the door closed behind her, Ari almost sighed in relief but Cullen actually seemed angry when he straightened his trousers and smoothed the tunic over them.<br/>
"You're a big girl, you know how to knock."<br/>
"Henry wrote you. Any news?" She simply ignored his comment and he nodded with an annoyed sigh. Henry had stayed in the City by the Lake and she hoped it hadn't been a bad decision.<br/>
"A message came yesterday. They've tried to kill him twice and he's decided to leave town; he wants to wait for you somewhere nearby." With a slight frown, Cullen flipped through some papers and Ari frowned as well.<br/>
"I don't like this. Really, Cullen, do you trust Maximilian?" She just couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.<br/>
"Since his last message didn't match what Henry wrote, I have my doubts now," Cullen admitted, but when he looked at Ari, he shrugged.<br/>
"Aren't you interested in this at all? That our own people could stab us in the back?" she wanted to know skeptically and he sighed.<br/>
"I care and it's my responsibility, don't worry."</p>
<p>For a moment they glanced at each other, then Cullen made an inviting gesture.<br/>
"Sit down."<br/>
She complied and dropped to one of the visitor chairs where she rubbed her eyes and sank a little. "You were talking with a sorceress," she said quietly.<br/>
"Hmm." He nodded thoughtfully. "Tom is probably wearing a ring around his balls. It's a witch thing, you know, to control men. I guess there's not much you can do about it." Which meant, in plain words, even the sorceress didn't know much about it.<br/>
Ari nodded. "Did you ask her about the shadow?"<br/>
He shook his head. "We were talking about control issues. And now guess, <em>little sorceress</em>, how to control women like you." There was gentle mockery in his voice and a smile on his lips, reflected in his eyes, but still, for a moment she felt anxious and swallowed.<br/>
"A collar." He said it as if he found the idea most amusing, and her hand slipped to her throat. Of course. In the Halls they used such collars to restrain novices who lost control. But she had never seen the use of one, or met anyone who had worn one.</p>
<p>"Ew," she made belatedly and Cullen smiled briefly, then he got serious again.<br/>
"It's a mystery to me, though, how you should put a collar like that on a witch when she's fully conscious."<br/>
"These things appear to be completely non-magical," Ari muttered and thought. "There must be some trick to get her to put it on. But they are all solid leather collars and not an expensive diamond necklace a real lady would wear."<br/>
"You could put it into a play during sex," Cullen remarked, again amused subliminally, but then he smacked his forehead. "I'm an idiot!"<br/>
"I'm glad you've noticed it yourself," Ari replied dryly and raised an eyebrow.<br/>
"The king had a collar like this made for his daughter. Such a collar, presented as a gift...", Cullen started but then broke off.<br/>
"Do you wanna ask Steven about it right away or are we just gonna borrow it?" she asked curiously. It was a good idea and a near perfect complement to her own.<br/>
Cullen snorted. "Without good reason, even I cannot get an audience these days. The bastard would have to fall off the cathedral tower. Might not be the worst idea, seeing as we're on the subject..."<br/>
"Don't you dare!" She leaned over and frowned at him. "We still need him!"<br/>
"We do?" Cullen was surprised and raised his eyebrows.<br/>
"He's our ticket into the castle of the Greenpebbles. He can give Ella the collar."<br/>
"Why would he do that?"<br/>
"To be allowed to court her foster daughter, Aphra."<br/>
Cullen blinked in surprise, then he laughed. Hannah had the same reaction and Ari pressed her lips together.</p>
<p>Cullen's laughing fit fortunately didn't last long enough to make her angry but still he giggled when he asked:<br/>
"And the wellborn prince says exactly <em>what</em> about this?"<br/>
Hissing, Ari took a breath. "Well, I guess I'm gonna go ask him." Christian was the sticking point. But she had one or two arguments to convince him- and in case of need she would pull out all the stops.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Sometimes it doesn't take complicated negotiations, only a nice talk</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Much later than Ari had hoped, she took the way to the castle. The conversation with Cullen hadn't lasted as long as she had feared, but afterwards she had gone back to the Tired Sparrow to get her luggage, and her stomach had demanded a meal. Not that what she had gulped down was really a real meal, but it still took time, as did writing an urgent message.</p>
<p>She turned onto the big main road leading to the castle and had to take a quick step to the side, because the squire, who was on patrol with a city guard, suddenly spread his arms wide during his babbled story and almost hit Ari with it.<br/>"Oh! Oh, excuse me, please, I-" the squire stammered, the city guard sighed and Ari shook her head. <br/>"It's okay, no harm done." <br/>"Excuse me," the squire repeated sheepishly and Ari put on a polite smile when she recognized the redhead. It was one of prince Alexander's friends. <br/>"Wait..." <br/>The guard grunted annoyed and turned back to Ari, although he was not meant at all; the squire frowned. <br/>"Can you tell me if prince Christian is in the barracks right now?"<br/>The frown moved to the guard, but the squire rolled his eyes. "The bastard has left for the music competition at the <em>Singing Keg</em>." <br/>"Marvelous", Ari murmured to herself and gave the squire a nod. "Thanks." <em>The Singing Keg</em> was the last thing she needed right now.</p>
<p>~</p>
<p>Ari entered the <em>Singing Keg</em> and stopped like rooted. <br/>Of course Christian of all people was on stage right now. <br/>Of course he was obviously not sober anymore. <br/>And of course he sang as a bastard the mocking version of a time-honored minstrel song which would have been fitting for him as prince and knight.</p>
<p>
  <em>"... 'cause just the might of my love, the power of my voice, hits your little heart like fire the ice! To win this game, I'II steal your senses and tonight I'II bring you the prize: I am the master of minstrels!"</em>
</p>
<p>"Oh, Great Mother..." she murmured and rubbed her forehead as she finally stepped away from the door. He had a pretty voice and the violinist was talented, but she didn't need the attention he just got. Neither the alcohol in his blood.<br/>"Let me guess," someone next to her suddenly said, and she winced a little, "you don't like the sight." It was Corry, who didn't look very happy either. <br/>"No," she admitted and took a deep breath; it smelled disgustingly strong of sweat and beer. "How drunk is he?" <br/>"How sober do you need him?" Corry asked back dryly and she sighed. "I see. Shall I help you get him out of here?" <br/>"No, don't bother." But when Christian's exit from the stage was much more unsteady than his singing had suggested, she sighed and said: "Thanks. Do you know where to find the next uncomplicated room? I'm not staying <em>here</em> by choice." <br/>"A few houses down the road." Corry shrugged slightly. "I know that grin, Ari, so I suggest you take him directly by his dick."<br/><br/></p>
<p>Christian leaned against the bar next to Ari and checked her out blatantly. "You're the little thief who wanted my jewels..." <br/>She smiled. "If you prove to me that you are truly the master of minstrels, I will even let you keep your jewels." <br/>His grin widened. "Fair offer." <br/>"Then come." Playfully, she took his wrist and dragged him outside, where Corry waited in the shadows to show her first the way and then rent a room.</p>
<p>Had she thought Christian didn't smell that bad the first time they met, she corrected herself. Sweat, alcohol, leather, metal, rotten fruit. One of the reasons she pitied whores was that most men stank. After he burped, she got a little sick. <br/>Across the street, she saw Corry shaking his head. Christian had one arm around her shoulders and she in turn had an arm around his waist - she probably supported him more than he realized or would have wanted to admit.<br/><br/></p>
<p>With a quiet groan Christian let himself fall on the bed and Ari- exhausted and now also sweaty, because a muscle-bound knight was damn heavy even without armor- didn't protest when he pulled her on his lap. <br/>"This is new..." he murmured and ran his thumb over the fine red scar that Tom's dagger had left. The healer had been more concerned with her broken ribs and bruised liver than a scratch. But it was remarkable that he noticed it at all.<br/>"Thieves live dangerously," she replied slowly and lightly, glad that his bad breath had not hit her directly. She bent over and pressed her lips against his neck while she put one hand against his cheek. <br/>His hands moved along her back to her bottom and pressed there more gently than she had expected. <br/>Her index finger stroked his lips, which opened wider willingly and then the tip of his tongue tapped her fingertip invitingly. It was a mystery to her why so many guys were into it, but certain questions were better left unanswered. So she let him suck her finger for a moment before she magically suffocated him. <br/>His body tensed, his fingers pierced her lower back and he spat out her finger, but she didn't let go.</p>
<p>The first time she had killed in this way was by accident, but in the meantime she had mastered the art a bit better and it didn't take long before she let the prince sink unconscious to the side. With a soft sigh of relief she stood up, bent his legs neatly on the bed and took off his belt with dagger and purse, then she put a light alarm spell on him that would wake her when he awoke. And since the bed was not the widest anyway, she took the folded blanket from the foot end and made herself comfortable on the floor. The difference between earth and planks wasn't that big.</p>
<p>~</p>
<p>With folded arms Ari leaned against the wall and watched Christian wake up. He gave a mixture of grunting and moaning and turned half on his back, opening his eyes and pausing almost immediately. She could literally see him taking stock inwardly and then he slowly reached for the dagger which wasn't there.<br/>"You don't need to bother, Christian, I just want to talk," she said quietly, knowing full well that he probably had quite a headache. <br/>Jerkily, he sat up and probably regretted it immediately, because he moaned quietly and pressed a hand on his stomach. <br/>She nodded in the direction of the small table where his belt was lying and a jug of fresh water stood.<br/>"The little thief..." he said slowly and made various grimaces. <br/>"And I even left you your family jewels." She twitched an eyebrow meaningfully and was kind enough to pour a cup of water and hand it to him. <br/>He made a strange sound, which she interpreted as a simple <em>thank you</em>, and then asked between sips: "Talk?" <br/>"I need your help." <br/>His reaction was to spit the water across the room - luckily she was standing beside him. <br/>"What?" <br/>"I need your help," she repeated, more slowly and very clearly. <br/>"Why does a <em>thief</em> need my help?", he asked irritated. <br/>"You are a prince," she replied simply, shrugging a little. <br/>"I'm a bastard," he returned and she sighed. <br/>"Always just as you like, huh?" <br/>Uncertain, he looked up at her and she sighed again. <br/>"Breakfast?"</p>
<p>~</p>
<p>Two hours later Christian pushed the soup bowl away from him and rubbed his face with both hands. They sat in the <em>Red Frog</em>, had had breakfast and under the protection of magic Ari had talked extensively. Or rather, after her summary he had asked exactly those questions whose answers she had deliberately left out before. You could say what you wanted, but the prince was smart.</p>
<p>He started to say something, but then Manny came and poured tea for them, giving him a probing look he didn't even notice. <br/>"I think..." he said slowly, "I see the problem." <br/>Ari simply nodded and took a sip of tea. <br/>"And I think I can take you to the library at the castle. If I talk to Sebastian and Samson, maybe even to the court wizard's library." <br/>Even though she didn't really want the affair to make waves, there wasn't much else she could do. <br/>"If you can manage to appear as a lady..." he added, and lost himself in his thoughts as he drank his tea. <br/>"That's the least of my problems," she assured him and he nodded absently. There were two families of tailors who worked very closely with the rogues and were able to make her a suitable dress in a short time.</p>
<p>"What about this anti-magic collar?" he then asked with slightly squinted eyes, implying that he still had a headache. <br/>"Cullen will take care of it." At least he'd promised her that, and Christian nodded, but then said: <br/>"Stealing from the king is reckless." <br/>"We'll borrow it," she corrected him seriously, adding: "And besides, we're taking care of a problem the King could have solved or prevented with a few words if he could have diverted his attention away from the war." <br/>A small smile plucked at the corner of Christian's mouth. "Well, that's probably why it won't be so easy to ask him for permission to leave town in a direction other than the war front." <br/>"You're a grown man and you don't ask your daddy's permission when you get into someone else's bed." She raised an eyebrow in a telling way and he frowned.</p>
<p>"Bastard or not, I still have to follow certain rules," he finally said with a slightly angry undertone and something told Ari that she had poked with her words in the right place. <br/>She bowed her head in agreement and then smiled at Manny as she first refilled the tea and then collected the empty plates. <br/>"Be nice to my girl," she growled and while Ari smiled, Christian looked at her irritated. <br/>"I haven't done anything." <br/>"I know you, boy," that's all Manny said. Well, not quite: "And you need a bath most urgently." <br/>Ari giggled stifled when Christian blushed a little. <br/>"That's not your mother, right?" <br/>"No. But Manny has many, many daughters." She winked at him and in addition to his skeptical frown, a slightly relieved expression appeared before he shook his head weakly.</p>
<p>Ari's smile faded quickly though, because there was one more important point to discuss. "You know, if you help us, this is not a selfless act..." <br/>"Am I being paid with money you stole from other nobles?" he wanted to know critically and not entirely serious. <br/>"No." She shook her head and he raised his eyebrows curiously. "You will receive a guild token. At least from me." <br/>"And that means?" <br/>"You'll be able to call on any rogue in the Guild of Whitehill for a favor. Unless your wish conflicts with our own laws or our code of honor, we are all bound to carry it out." Such tokens were valuable and dangerous in the wrong hands, but it would be a reasonable reward from Tom and Arnold as council members for a saved life and Ari simply had no other choice, because in fact all alternatives were more or less senseless or silly. If Murdoch and Hadley survived and went along with it, Christian might end up with five tokens- which was a bit scary but not to be changed.</p>
<p>"A guild token," he said slowly, and she nodded. He thought about it and then put his head a bit tilted; the calculating expression didn't quite suit him. "I suppose I can't have Steven killed with this." He said it curiously, hypothetically, but Ari still got goose bumps. <br/>"No. Not our king, not his heir." <br/>"But Alex or Sebastian?" <br/>She simply nodded. <br/>With a quiet laugh he leaned back and then he was back to being the not-so-serious bastard prince in search of pleasure. "Hmm, lifetime free access to whore houses. Endless supply of beer in the frog. Sounds good." <br/>She nodded thoughtfully and smiled as she swallowed the warning which lay on her tongue; he was clever enough not to need any.</p>
<p>"Tell me, little thief-" he paused, "I don't even know your name." <br/>"Ari." <br/>"Ari?" He looked at her like she was mocking him and she nodded. <br/>"Ari." <br/>"Okay... um... how can I contact you?" <br/>"Through the frog." She made a curt gesture. "Or if it's really urgent, you can go to the <em>Black Dagger</em>." <br/>Judging by the look on his face, he'd been told to respect the <em>Black Dagger</em> - good thing. They looked at each other for a moment before he averted his eyes.</p>
<p>"I will talk to my brothers," he declared quietly but earnestly, and stood up. Ari also rose. <br/>"Maybe you should wash first." <br/>"I got the hint already the first time, thank you." Despite his angry sounding words he blushed and she had to smile. A little unnecessarily she pushed her chair to the table and tapped her imaginary hat in greeting. <br/>"Enjoy your bath in milk and honey, little prince." <br/>"Bitch." <br/>With a grin, she turned away.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Christian is quite obviously the connecting point between the rogue story and "The Beginning of the Fall" - in the original rogue idea there was no character like his and the call for help regarding the magic lady came from Aphra herself. In the end, it was she who helped the rogues from the inside - which both seems not very realistic in retrospect.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Lyrics adapted after "Meister der Minne" by Feuerschwanz</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>